by J. E. Cluney
“It really did, that’s also how I found out about the other supe schools in my area that my Aunt could have sent me to,” I muttered. “I found Lucas’s listing for a housemate through the site too. I was so excited to finally embrace what I was, rather than be stuck between the two worlds.”
I groaned as I laid back on the bed.
“I really fucking hate my Aunt. My life could’ve been so different, I could’ve learned so much if she didn’t cut me off from it all, forcing me not to talk about anything supernatural, hiding my powers. I felt so alone for so long. I was just lucky that after I met Derek I found that witch through him to get the stupid pendant off. She moved right around the time when we broke up, so I lost my only chance at knowing more about the supernatural world,” I growled. I’d been so lost, knowing I was different but having no one who understood or who could help me. I’d met a few of Derek’s friends who were shifters, but none of them would speak to me after our break-up, and I had to accept I’d lost my link to the supernatural world once more. There was no way in hell I would crawl back to my aunt.
“I’m so sorry Al,” Ollie murmured as he squeezed my knee sadly. “No one should’ve had to live like that. It’s all going to change now. You’ve got us, and we’ll teach you everything you need to know. How about you get started on this reading? I’m sure you’re excited to,” he smiled as he patted the stack of books on the end of the bed.
“Thanks,” I mumbled as I pulled myself back up to sit beside him. “You’re so sweet, thank you. Moving here, finding out about this town, it’s been amazing. I grew up at Maroochydore, which has some warded areas, but not entirely for supes. It seems there’s different wardings for different areas. Like here. From my understanding, no humans know this place even exists, we’re meant to tell people we’re from Maleny or Conondale instead, right?”
“Yeah,” Ollie nodded.
“So the postal guys who handle this area must be supes then. And the wardings actually reject humans?” I clarified. I hadn’t quite understood the terminology on the website.
“To those passing the outskirts, all they see is old farmhouses, only supes can see the real thing. And if people try to drive into those farmhouses, they forget and end up back out on the road again. I don’t fully understand the magic behind it, I just know it works,” he shrugged.
“It was so strange, knowing that there was this other side of the world all around you, but having no idea how to see it or connect to it. That all changed though. I dunno why I didn’t reach out to her school sooner. I should’ve,” I said as I balled my hands up into fists. I’d spent so long not knowing about all this, teetering on the edge of the human world, but not quite falling into the supernatural world. Until now.
“Hey, relax, why don’t you bring a book down and sit with us while we play PlayStation? You can ask any questions you want,” he suggested as he patted my arm.
“Okay,” I breathed, forcing my fluttering heart to slow. I’d gotten a little worked up thinking about my stupid, cruel life. I’d not dwelled much on my lack of knowledge and understanding of the supernatural world due to dealing with other life issues. Other dramas.
I pushed the ugly memories from my head that tried to surface as I stood up. I picked two books from my stack, struggling with the choices but settled on the encyclopedia and a historical one. Ollie led the way, and I relaxed a little. These boys were too good, and I was mighty glad I’d met them.
Oliver was a lifesaver.
“What’s a skinwalker?” I asked as I turned the page to the grotesque creature pictured. It looked like a man, but it had shriveled skin and it’s limbs were twisted as it crawled across the page. Such a lifelike illustration that it was actually frightening.
“Very, very rare, pretty much non-existent here in Australia. They’re kinda like us true shifters, although they have the ability to control others and turn into people, not just animals. Not a nice bunch actually,” Oliver said from his perch beside me on the lounge. His eyes never left the TV though, where Skip was playing as some guy called ‘Snake’ and taking out some base or something. It was actually a little interesting to watch, such good graphics for a game.
“Not creepy at all,” I murmured as I decided to fold the corner of the page for future reading. I was more interested in supes I might run into.
“Don’t let Lucas see you doing that,” Oliver chuckled. “He has a stash of bookmarks in the library for anyone to use.”
“Sorry,” I cringed. I’d always just folded the corner of the page, it was easy. Bad, but easy.
“So are mermaids a thing?” I asked as I moved onto reading about sprites. Another form of fae that was relatively uncommon. The general fae were the most common, but sprites, pixies and others were offshoots, having some form of lesser abilities than the main fae. Putting it nicely, I’d lose in a magical fight with a fae. Fae, who could actually hurl magic, unlike pixies.
“Yes, there’s even some down on the coast, mermen too,” Skip spoke up. “All the ocean shifters live down there. I cannot tell you how many shark shifters I’ve met who are named Bruce, I’ve met three so far. I swear their parents thought it was the greatest thing,” Skip groaned as he tapped away at the buttons aggressively. An explosion occurred on the screen and he did a soft cheer.
“Damn, poor guys, guess their parents loved Nemo too much,” I murmured.
Skip paused the game to shuffle down the lounge to stare hard at me.
“Are you serious?” he stared hard at me, that smirk reaching his eyes as they lit up.
“What?” I frowned.
“Damn, she has no idea,” Skip gaped as he looked to Oliver.
“That’s sad,” Oliver sighed as he slouched against the arm of the lounge, giving me a sad smile as he tutted and shook his head.
“What? Is this some kind of inside joke?” I growled. What was I missing?
“You’ve never seen Jaws?” Skip raised an eyebrow.
“I’ve heard of it. I wasn’t allowed to watch things much until I moved out, and then I was working my arse off to afford to live on the coast,” I crossed my arms defensively.
“Bruce is the all famous shark from Jaws, I can’t believe you’ve never seen it,” Skip let out a long groan of distress.
“I don’t do horror movies,” I muttered. I’d heard about Jaws, but it wasn’t on my to watch list. I was more of a Netflix TV show gal or Disney girl. I liked my fun, action packed movies. Not scary movies.
And I was terrified of sharks.
“It’s not a real horror,” Oliver snorted.
“Look, I didn’t swim at the beach, do you know what’s in our waters? We’ve been getting box jellyfish now and then there’s the sharks. Do you see fins or flippers on me? Webbed feet? No. I was not born to swim, I’m a land girl,” I retorted.
Skip just broke into a wide grin at this, amused by my deep distress about the ocean.
It was a terrifying thing, so much of it was unexplored and unknown. I’d prefer to be on land where I knew where I stood.
“We will get you to watch it with us one time,” Skip promised as he clapped his hands.
“Don’t force her,” Oliver groaned.
“I won’t. But you’re not a true Aussie unless you watch it,” he said as he turned his nose up.
“So, you’ve met mermaids?” I tried to switch the subject.
“Yes. Not as amazing as you’d think. They’re mostly surfer people, they can control the water around them to a degree and apparently communicate with all aquatic life. They tend to shift when they’re alone, but they’re lucky, their magical abilities obscures it from humans. Humans don’t see their tails and webbed hands, or the gills on their necks. They just see people in full body surf suits, if they happen to come across them,” Skip said.
“That still sounds pretty amazing,” I admitted.
“They’re surfer people. All they care about is the ocean, and they love to sleep around. Fun fact, they can only impregnate their
own kind. Not any other supe or human,” Skip added.
“Speaking of, what happens if you were to sleep with a human? What would they see?” I asked, unable to keep the picture of a penis with a second one growing out of it from appearing in my mind.
“To be honest, from my understanding, all things like that with supes just get seen and felt like a normal penis to humans. Like if a male guy went down on you and made you finish, he wouldn’t taste the honey orgasm or see the sparkles. The mischief magic though, that one’s uncertain, depends how well you know how to wield it. You’ll be taught how to conceal it, mask it from humans. It will mean it gets distorted in their eyes, like reality is warped. Say you make a muffin turn into a dog and bark at someone, all they’d see is a muffin that has fallen off the table and is rolling around. It’s best to learn to control it so it doesn’t happen in public though,” Skip explained. “Your magic will already conceal it a bit, but it needs honing to become a better camouflage.”
“Huh, okay,” I said as I took it all in. So not only could I learn to control my abilities, but I could cloak them? Damn, I was learning something new every passing hour it seemed.
“So, I’m going to get some more beer, that one carton won’t be enough for us all, you want anything, Cupcake?” Lucas appeared in the doorway, suited up like he was going to prom.
I wonder how others took him, or did he alter how they saw him too? Damn, magic and all this new knowledge about supernatural stuff was mind-boggling.
“I don’t drink, thanks,” I said.
“You sure? I can grab some wine, spirits, cocktail ingredients? I can make specialty cocktails?” Lucas offered with a lopsided, charming smile.
“I’m sure,” I nodded sweetly.
“Well, toodles then, Cupcake. I will be back shortly,” he bowed, drawing a soft laugh from me.
“He can be a bit over the top,” Oliver chuckled.
“Rich people can be over the top,” Skip snorted.
“I’m not,” Oliver argued.
“You’re no longer as rich as you were, besides, you were always the black sheep,” Skip snickered.
“Least I wasn’t given a stupid name like Skippy,” Oliver muttered as he scowled over at him.
“Least I’m not cursed,” Skip shot back.
“Enough!” I rolled my eyes as I looked between the two. “Now, why don’t you go back to playing PlayStation, and Ollie, anything I should know for when I start at uni? Any supes I should study up on or something?” I asked as I chewed my lip, hoping this would distract the pair.
“Whatever,” Skip muttered as he turned back to the TV.
“Um, well, it’ll mostly be shifters and witches, they make up most of the students. You’ll have some elementals thrown in, you won’t really deal with the vamps unless you take night classes, um, there’ll be fae, and then you’ll get a scattering of other supes,” Oliver shrugged.
“What’s the most common shifters then?” I asked.
“Up here? Natives mostly, koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, dingoes. You’ll have some dog, cat and bird shifters too, no exotics really like you. No panthers, or tigers, or wolves. At least, not that I’m aware of. You’re the first exotic in Maple Grove since Gregory the panther moved down south to meet up with the other panthers down in NSW. There’s a couple of them there, black panthers,” Ollie said as he mulled it over thoughtfully.
“Gregory?” I cracked a smirk at the name.
“Yeah, he studied up here a few years ago, I remember him,” Skip murmured as he focused on his game once more.
“Great.” I let out a raspberry in annoyance. I doubted an exotic supe would slip under the radar easily.
“Don’t worry, everyone is quite nice up here, laid-back and casual. You’ll be fine,” Oliver reassured.
“I hope so,” I murmured as I focused back down on the pages of my book.
I wanted to learn how to use my abilities and help animals more. I’d always loved them growing up, they’d been much nicer than people, much more loving and sweet. My Aunt had had a dog for years, little Maisy, a tan staffy. She’d comforted me more than any of my so-called family over the years. I took over caring for her since my Aunt did very little to look after her.
When she passed, I came to the conclusion that I preferred the company of animals over people, and vowed to leave my Aunt’s home and become a veterinarian or run a rescue or something.
And coming to this University, I could also learn more about the world I was a part of. I could be taught to what extent my abilities could help me.
Strange though, because for the next hour or so, I couldn’t find anything under any of the fae lineages or sub-species about sensing illness or fatal issues in animals. How peculiar.
8
I sat on the lounge in the games room with Oliver as Skip and Lucas versed Richo and Issac in a game of pool. They were split into teams, and Skip and Lucas were winning. Skip hadn’t been too big on playing until Richo and Issac told him they’d promise not to use magic. Lucas would monitor it too.
I bit into my pizza, a pleasant change from my usual pepperoni. I’d seen their menu and decided to choose the BBQ Chook, a pizza topped with chicken, bacon, red onion, barbecue sauce and cheese.
And it was bloody amazing.
“So, Ally, you’re from Maroochydore?” Issac asked as he stood back with his pool cue while Lucas took his turn.
Issac was tall and broad, easily standing over the others. Sadly, he swung for the other team it seemed, and had been talking about how he was going to see his boyfriend tomorrow before he went back to uni. Not that I would’ve even guessed he was gay, considering how he reminded me of a Rugby player. Maori descent too, which was obvious by his thick kiwi accent and indigenous appearance. His olive skin was covered in tribal tattoos all over his arms and even spilling out of of his black shirt on his neck. He had the wide-set nose and dark earthy brown eyes that many Maori had, along with his long black hair that he had done up in man bun. His chin and cheeks were covered in a dusting of stubble, like he’d recently shaved. It suited his more rounded face, and his solid frame made me wonder if I was correct in thinking he may have played Rugby.
“Yeah,” I nodded through a mouthful of food.
“Musta bin noice, living near the beach,” he smiled. I struggled to understand most of his words, as they sounded vastly different with his accent. Even beach almost sounded like bitch.
“Nah, I didn’t swim,” I said as I finished up my slice of pizza and glanced over at Oliver beside me. I wondered if he struggled to understand the kiwi as much as I did.
“Right, shame dat,” he clicked his tongue. “Well, least ye can enjoy the greenery up ‘ere den.”
“Yeah,” I nodded.
“Issac grew up in New Zealand but moved here, what, six years ago?” Oliver clarified as I looked over my shoulder. The lounge was set up so you had to turn to look over at the pool table.
“Yip, moved ‘ere to study sorcery, New Zealand doesn’t offer very good sorcery classes,” Issac said as he moved over to the bar to sip his bottle of beer on the countertop.
Skip was perched on a stool while he waited for his turn, swigging from his beer too.
“Do you miss home?” I asked as I dug into another piece of the heavenly pizza.
“Sometimes, but it’s bin good ‘ere, learning the full extent of my abilities, what I can do. Not as good as this ‘ere bloke though,” he raised his bottle to Lucas who just smirked and nodded in appreciation.
“So Ally, what made you decide to put in your application to join a house full of guys? Surely that was a little intimidating?” Richo said as he took his turn, hitting the white ball and watching as it connected with a red one and sunk it.
Richo was a similar build to Lucas, and wore the same kind of lavish suit. It made the rest of us stand out like sore thumbs. Richo had a buzz cut though, and a strong jawline with a short beard. Those blue eyes were dark like the ocean, nothing like Skip’s bright sky-bl
ue eyes.
Skip and Issac looked quite out of place with the two elegantly dressed men, while they were both in singlets, shorts and thongs.
A quick glance revealed that Issac had actually abandoned his thongs over by the bar now.
“I lived with my cousin for ages, went to a non-supe school, decided girls were arseholes. Bitchy, backstabbing cows most of the time. Men are easier, they’re normally straight to the point, and if their intentions aren’t pure, you know pretty quick. Like how Marcus doesn’t like me, he didn’t pretend to,” I muttered the last part.
“Oi, be nice to that fanger, he can’t help it. Especially with ye being a fae, he’s got his reasons,” Issac scolded me with a wave of his pool cue.
“Marcus doesn’t not like you, Cupcake. He’s just an acquired taste, and untrusting at first, I guess,” Lucas shrugged sheepishly as he indicated at Skip that it was his turn.
I pursed my lips at this. Everyone seemed to know something about Marcus that I didn’t. What was being hidden from me?
“You know what, I don’t get this whole being fae thing being an issue for him. My cousin dated a vampire witch, she was fae, he handled it fine,” I sighed as I reached for my glass of lemon, lime, and bitters. Lucas had made it for me when he’d offered to make up everyone’s drinks. Most of the boys had been easy with beers, but Oliver had wanted some midori and lemonade, and I asked for anything non-alcoholic. It seemed the bar was rather stocked with cocktail ingredients, and yet most of them preferred beer. I was with Oliver on that one, it tasted like piss. And I wouldn’t touch alcohol with a ten-foot pole anyway.
“He’s got his reasons, it’s not a general fae thing,” Oliver murmured as he leaned closer so I could hear him.
“Maybe try talking to ‘im, don’t let ‘im push ye away, it’s his go to move. Doesn’t like to let anyone get close, even deez guys, who he’s grown up with,” Issac said as he waved his hand at the group.
I frowned at Issac as Skip strode over to sit on the lounge across from me.