by J. E. Cluney
“How?” I murmured as I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the table as I played with the end of my ponytail.
“Close your eyes,” Lucas commanded.
I frowned, and he rolled his eyes.
“Trust me, I’m here, if anything goes wrong, I can handle it,” he said with that deliciously charming, crooked smile.
I sighed and closed my eyes, biting my lip as I heard Oliver drag his seat closer.
“Now, imagine your power, your essence and energy, is flowing through you, feel it, and acknowledge it,” Lucas said.
“How?” I groaned. They weren’t exactly proper instructions.
“You said you can feel when your mischief magic is coming on when you’re not in warded zones? Well, imagine it, the sensation you get when it comes on,” Oliver coaxed me.
Okay, now that was more informative.
I imagined it, that tingling, electric spark that churned my gut as it washed over me.
“Now, once you feel it, imagine it reaching out, brushing over all those walking around you, all those in your vicinity,” Lucas murmured.
I focused, the tingling shooting through me as I clasped my hands together.
“You want to feel for the same thing inside others, start with me, can you feel me, sense me?” Oliver asked from my left, his voice extremely close.
I arched my eyebrows in shock as I felt it. It was like I could feel his outline, his presence, amongst all the other walking shadows. He was a speck inside my mind of utter vibrancy and rainbow colors.
“Rainbow,” I chuckled.
“Yep, that’s a true shifter,” Lucas clapped his hands, pleased with my realization.
“Skip, you’re a yellow, although tinged with orange,” I murmured, focusing on his presence in my mind, my eyes still closed.
“Yellow is shifters, and depending on what they are, you’ll get a mix of other colors in there,” Skip said, and I could hear the delighted smile in his voice.
“And Luke, you’re purple,” I snorted, grinning at the obvious color. “Although, it looks like a galaxy really.”
“Warlocks are galaxy-like, normal witches are plain purple,” Lucas said.
“Can you sense others?” Oliver asked softly, his warm breath washing over my ear and making a shiver of warmth run through.
I could.
As I reached further, I could feel others walking in the street. Mostly shifters. I could sense a witch inside IGA too.
I opened my eyes, my mouth falling open at the slightest tinges of color around my three companions.
“When you focus, you’ll see it,” Lucas grinned, knowing exactly what I could see. It was incredible, like a galaxy was swirling off his body.
“This is awesome,” I breathed.
“Welcome to the underworld, baby,” Skip snorted and chuckled as Oliver shook his head with a laugh.
“What color am I?” I asked curiously.
“You’ll be a pink with a little yellow and grey, at least, I think wolf shifters are grey,” Skip mused.
“Amazing,” I murmured.
I let my senses fall back to normal, watching in amazement as the colors radiating around the edges of my companions faded away.
That hadn’t been too hard.
“Sensing others is one of the first things we’re taught as children, so it’s not too difficult,” Skip said.
“Oh.”
“Still, you got it pretty quickly,” Oliver said as he shot Skip a look.
I had been pretty chuffed about myself.
“He is right,” Skip said quickly, and Lucas just shook his head and sighed as he stretched.
“Well, let’s go for a drive, we’ve still got plenty of daylight, might as well show Ally just how beautiful this area is,” Lucas said as he pushed his seat out and stood.
I tried to pretend I didn’t feel let down by finding out my quick on-the-spot learning wasn’t as epic as I’d thought it was. Hell, I’d still believe it was great for my first time.
I played with my silver charm bracelet as I stood up with the boys, and we headed off across the street to make our way back to the cruiser.
The sun beat down on us, and I was more than happy when we slipped back into the shade. I’d thought it was hot the other night, nope, today was a scorcher. We’d barely gotten a storm yesterday, just heavy rain and the occasional flash of lightning. We’d definitely get something tonight, no doubt about it.
Being the lone girl with three dazzling guys earned me a number of looks from those walking by, including a group of schoolgirls who ogled my three companions and giggled as they whispered to one another.
A pang of jealousy washed over me, and I nearly tripped on the sidewalk at the sudden sensation.
I had no right to feel that way. These were my housemates.
Not to mention the jealousy wasn’t specific to any of my three companions.
Ohhh boy.
I tried to busy my mind, instead focusing on the thought of my new job.
Gina and Henry were friendly and nice, and the cafe offered air-conditioning, which was a step up from my last job.
“Hey, what are Gina and Henry?” I asked as we traversed the gentle sloping sidewalk down to the carpark behind the large IGA building. It was covered so that shoppers wouldn’t be doing mad trolley runs in the rain down the slope, but the carpark itself was uncovered.
“What do you mean?” Skip asked as his arm brushed mine, sending a hot tingle through me which I squashed down.
“Supes? Everyone is supes in Maple Grove, right?” I clarified.
“Yep! Gina is a shifter, a koala actually, and Henry is a shifter too, crocodile I believe. Get him riled up, and he can get scary,” Oliver said as he walked out in front, leading the way back to the cruiser.
“A koala hey,” I murmured. Interesting to know.
“Yeah, every now and then as a kid, I’d see her shifted. They have a few eucalyptus trees out the back of their place, and she’d go sit in one, sleeping and eating. It’d drive Henry mad, but it apparently really rejuvenated her and gave her a heap of energy. She wouldn’t sleep much after a day or two of being shifted and she’d get so much done,” Oliver laughed at the memory.
“Well, considering koalas sleep for eighteen hours a day, I can understand that,” Lucas chuckled.
“If you’re wondering, reptile shifters can put on weight easily. They’re a little cold-blooded and slow like their counterparts, and yet they still eat and drink like a normal person. Snakes and crocodiles don‘t eat often, snakes vary from once a week to once a month average, sometimes even longer between meals, and crocs are similar I think. So that’s why he’s a bit on the bigger side,” Skip explained.
“Do they have kids? And what would a child end up being anyway?” I asked.
“They had a daughter, she ended up be a crocodile shifter, she lives down in Brissy now,” Oliver said.
“With shifters, the child has a fifty-fifty chance of being the same as one of their parents. But if only one parent is a shifter, they’re more likely to be whatever the non-shifter parent is. Seventy-five percent chance of not being a shifter,” Lucas added.
“So, if a shifter ended up with a witch, the kid would be a witch most likely?” I checked.
“Yep, but in rare cases, like, quite rare, they can be both. A shifter-witch, or like you, a wolf-fae halfling,” Skip stated as we reached the cruiser.
I shielded my eyes from the sun glinting off the bonnet, and mulled over this.
So I was a rarity then? Halflings weren’t too common by the sounds of things.
Guess that made me special then.
“So, how about we head up to the lookout out at Reesville? Or check out Gardners Falls?” Skip asked his two companions as he unlocked the cruiser.
It didn’t have central locking, so he had to climb in and reach over to unlock my door and then the back door.
“No, definitely not Gardners, it’ll be crowded as hell today,” Lucas shook his
head firmly. “Lookout will be good. And we’ll just drive around the back streets, explore.”
“There’s some really nice places tucked away out on the back roads, you’ll love them,” Oliver beamed as Lucas held my door open for me yet again.
Such a gentleman.
I climbed in after thanking him, and the cruiser sputtered to life as I rolled down the window to let the breeze in.
“Still wish we had a way of finding out about Jack,” Oliver sighed as we pulled out of the carpark.
“He’ll be okay,” I said, but I did wonder. His owner seemed quite stressed by the possibility that his furry friend was sick, so surely he was at the vet now getting it sorted.
I hoped.
“It’s a shame Marcus can’t come out with us,” I said as I rested my arm on the window frame, the cool rush of air caressing my skin as we pulled out into the main street.
No one said a word at that, and I glanced back at Oliver and Lucas to see if I’d hit a button.
They both looked a little saddened by my comment.
“He used to come out with us, before he got turned,” Oliver murmured as he rested his head back, the wind blowing through his open window ruffling his messy brown locks.
“Marcus used to paint and draw a lot, he’d always bring a sketchbook with him wherever we went. Such talent,” Lucas smiled as he gazed out the window, playing with the cuff of his suit. How he wasn’t overheating was a mystery to me. Magic, I guess.
I frowned at this.
Marcus was an artist? I couldn’t picture that really. I mean, maybe the dark, brooding artist type, but he’d only ever tucked himself away behind his laptop whenever I saw him.
“He used to?” I said softly.
“Yeah, he stopped when he got turned,” Skip said as he focused hard on the road. No one seemed to want to look at me now.
“His pieces were so realistic sometimes, you’d think they were photos,” Oliver’s mouth tugged into a small smile. “He just focuses on his gaming now, and game design too.”
Hiding himself away. That’s what Oliver was really saying.
Marcus was avoiding everyone, keeping to himself and holding everyone at arm’s length.
How was that any way to live?
My mind wandered back to how they said someone got hurt. Did that have something to do with this? I didn’t doubt it.
The cruiser fell into silence, and I sighed as I looked back out the window.
Maybe I’d try to talk to him tonight.
I relaxed under the warm spray of water, flinching when another crack of thunder tore overhead.
I’d been spot on. We’d spent the better part of an hour driving around, and then sat at the lookout for a while just chatting about TV shows, arguing about which superhero was the best in the Avengers movies. It was interesting hearing the differing arguments by the three men. It seemed all of them enjoyed the Marvel movies, although only Ollie and Marcus were big on catching them as soon as they released.
And we watched as those dark, ominous clouds rolled in over the acres of farmland. Our perfect view all around from the lookout was amazing, and I could see the Glasshouse Mountains with ease, and even the coast way in the distance.
We decided to head home once the rain started, and I spent the remainder of the afternoon watching some more ‘Good Place’ with Oliver until the power went out. Lucas offered to use magic to get it all going again, but I wanted to catch a nap.
Now I was in the shower, the warm water washing over me and waking me up properly after my nap. Apparently, either the power had come back on, or Lucas had sorted it out.
Either way I was grateful, otherwise I’d be showering in the dark.
Thunder rumbled and snapped outside as the rain hammered down on the roof, and I focused on scrubbing myself.
I shuddered as a loud thunderclap rattled the house, and I resigned myself to hurriedly washing myself now.
I knew it was an old wives’ tale to not shower in thunderstorms, but getting dressed and into my cozy pajamas sounded good now, along with a hot milo.
I finished up quickly and clambered out, sighing at the warmth washing over me from the heat light overhead.
I wrapped the towel around me, grumbling at the fact that I’d forgotten to grab my clothes this time thanks to my groggy state.
I headed for the bathroom door, flicking the switches off as I unlocked it and stepped into the hall.
Lightning flashed outside, lighting up the hall and making me jump in fright as a shadow caught the corner of my eye.
“Jesus, you scared me,” I gasped, willing my heart to calm down as I looked at Marcus, who was standing outside his door.
“Sorry,” he apologized, catching me by surprise.
I wouldn’t have expected an apology from him.
“Hey, are you going to come join us downstairs? I think Skip was going to make a roast tonight, although, I guess you can’t eat it…” I trailed off as I rubbed my arm nervously. Stupid. He was a vampire, of course he didn’t eat.
He gave a soft half laugh as he smirked, those frosty eyes trailing over me as the lightning lit up the hallway once more. I was tempted to cross over to the wall to flick the hall light on to better see him, but I resisted.
“I was already coming down to use my laptop,” he said, his smooth voice almost drowned out by the pounding rain and another rumble of thunder.
“Oh, good,” I nodded.
“You better get dressed before you catch a cold or something,” he said, his smirk fading as his shoulders rose back up.
Again, the walls were slammed back up.
“Right,” I sighed, dragging my eyes away from the dark vampire as I crossed to my room. I didn’t even see him flit past, just felt the slightest whoosh of air.
“Hey, I’m on a local Facebook group, and you won’t believe this, but that guy just posted wanting to thank the ‘two vet students’ he met in the main street. He says here that ‘Jack must have ingested some rat poison over the last few days without my knowledge, and without their quick diagnosis, he could have wound up a lot worse, but thankfully, with the help of the vet, he’s on the road to recovery’,” Lucas said as he joined us in the living room while reading his iPhone screen.
I’d just sat down beside Oliver as Skip played some Metal Gear Solid. Lucas had been in the library until now.
“Oh, awesome!” Oliver grinned as he nestled into the lounge cushions with a blanket wrapped around him.
“I’m glad to hear that,” I said, a part of me relaxing at the news. I had wondered about little Jack.
“I’ve been doing some research, trying to understand why you have this ability. Being part ‘wolf, I thought maybe it was that, but apparently your shifter wolf side is not the dominant gene, the fae side is. Something to do with how it was your mother who was the fae, and how they’re a more powerful gene than the shifter gene,” Lucas waved it off. “I haven’t come up with any explanation yet, but I’ll keep looking into it,” he gave me his charming lopsided smile.
And for a change, he was now in tracksuit pants and a plain black top. And he looked fine as hell out of a suit, I was struggling to keep my eyes of him.
“How’s the roast coming along?” he asked as he turned to Skip on the other lounge.
“Good, it’s in the oven, it’ll take another half an hour, I set the timer,” Skip said, focused on the mission he was battling his way through.
“I thought Marcus was coming down here?” I frowned.
“He was, he’s in the library now,” Lucas said as he flicked his head over his shoulder.
“Well, I’ll get a round of hot milos sorted, who wants one?” Lucas asked the room.
“Yes please,” I said with a smile as Oliver nodded and Skip grunted in approval.
“Right,” Lucas said with an eye roll directed at Skip. He strode off, and I chewed my lip.
I should go see Marcus. Ever since this morning, I’d softened a little towards him.
There was more to why he was an arse at times. And I wanted to see that other side of him more.
“I’ll be back,” I murmured to Oliver as I stood up.
He just nodded, his eyes not straying from the TV as Skip cursed softly while he struggled with his current mission.
Boys and their toys.
I padded into the library, pulling my old grey jacket tighter around my shoulders.
Marcus sat at the desk with his laptop set up before him, and from my position, it looked like he was working on a character concept perhaps?
“Hey,” I said softly as I strode over to the desk and leaned against the edge of it.
He grunted in acknowledgement, not drawing his eyes away from the screen.
“What are you working on?” I asked.
“Stuff,” he muttered.
“What kind of stuff?” I urged, folding my hands into my lap.
“Game stuff.”
“What kind of game stuff?” I pushed, not willing to let him force me away.
“You’re persistent, aren’t you?” he gave me a smirk as he finally pulled those icy eyes away from the screen to look at me.
Damn, he was godly beautiful to look at. The porcelain skin only added to his beauty.
“Well, I don’t think you’re the big mean vampire you pretend to be,” I shrugged.
“I don’t try to be,” he said, his mouth still curved up in that devilish smirk.
“Well, you certainly act like a dick sometimes,” I said bluntly.
He just looked away and sighed before focusing on me again.
“You should be careful with vampires, we’re dangerous,” he murmured as he leaned forward.
“I don’t think you are,” I shrugged nonchalantly.
“You barely know me,” his voice was almost a whisper.
“I know your friends, and they’re sweet and kind, and you’ve known them for most of your life. I can only assume that underneath that cold exterior, you’re like them too,” I said, surprised at my own confidence as I leaned forward to stare at him.
His eyes narrowed as he stood up slowly, those cold eyes sweeping over me once again.
“I’m not who I was when I grew up with them,” he growled softly. Now I was looking up at him, and he was dangerously close, only the smallest of gaps dividing us.