by J. E. Cluney
Skip just laughed as Lucas chuckled, while Ollie was the only one to come to my aid and pat my back.
I regained myself as I flicked my eyes between the pair.
“Okay, you can’t keep making jokes like that, not inside ones, I want to know,” I gasped as I regained myself, nodding at Ollie in thanks.
“Trust me, you probably don’t,” Skip smirked as he bit into his sandwich. He’d almost finished it in just four bites. That had to be a record.
“Oh, I think I do,” I retorted.
“Skip’s good with the ladies when it comes to his hands,” Lucas stated, and Ollie groaned.
“Is sex really all you can think about?” I let out an exasperated sigh, but my interest was piqued. Just how good was he with his hands?
“Uh, most of the time,” Skip gave me a stupefied look.
“It’s natural at this age,” Lucas shrugged, but his lip was pulled back into a sly smirk.
“I don’t,” I shot back.
“Really? You don’t think about it? About that moment when your bodies are all wrapped up, naked and hot, desperate for satisfaction? When all you want is something more, that final finish, that bliss and pure ecstasy coursing through you as you connect with another person?” Skip purred as he leaned forward, the words rolling off his tongue like velvet.
Holy hell, that caused a reaction.
He sensed it too, I realized, as his eyes dilated.
“Word of caution, shifters can smell arousal,” Lucas murmured.
Oh fuck.
“Seems our little pixie does think of sex more than she cares to admit,” Skip chuckled, but those blue eyes were fixated on me. I could see his interest deep in them, the hunger, the… desire.
“All right, enough of this,” I put my hand up, afraid I’d jump the kangaroo shifter if he kept that up. I seriously needed to buy myself a new toy, and soon.
“I’m just playing with you,” Skip grinned as he pulled back.
Yeah, sure. That was all it was.
I turned to ask Ollie to back me up, but my mouth formed no words at the way those amber eyes were trailing over me.
Ugh. Shifters.
“Here, let’s sort this,” Lucas sighed as he waved his hand.
“You’re no fun,” Skip pouted, and Ollie relaxed a little as he averted his gaze, his brow creasing.
“What’d you do?” I asked as I turned to eye Lucas, who was watching me with an amused crooked smile.
“Got rid of the scent,” he stated obviously.
“This is embarrassing,” I muttered.
“Get used to it. You live with shifters, and a vampire. I’m probably the only one who won’t smell it,” Lucas chuckled. “And relax, we’re used to these things. We grew up like this, sex is pretty normal.”
“I’m not having sex with anyone,” I said, then realized what I’d said. Why had I said that, God, foot in mouth much?
“Aw, and here I was thinking you were falling for me,” Skip feigned heartache as he held his hands to his chest.
If only you knew, I thought to myself.
Lucas just chuckled, and I could’ve sworn Ollie pouted before covering it by biting his wrap.
“Well, my lunch break is over, you two behave, I don’t want you scaring our new housemate off,” Lucas said firmly to the two boys as he stood up.
“We’d never do that,” Skip gave him a bright, cheeky grin. No, not at all.
Great. I was seriously wishing I could toss aside my need to keep my relationship with my boys strictly business. They were so damn tempting at times, not to mention they obviously had some interest. Or maybe it was just a shifter reaction? No, stop that, Ally. They are a no go, no matter how any of you feel.
I sighed, hating my logical side right now.
Maybe I’d get tinder on my new phone with my real Facebook, that would help. And once I had some money, I’d get myself a new toy.
“How was your day?” Emma asked vibrantly as I met her out the front of the campus. I’d informed Ollie I would find my way home later, so he got a lift with Lucas. Emma skipped over to walk beside me, her white hair up in a high ponytail today.
“Good, yours?” I asked as she began leading the way. Dingo diner was only a ten-minute walk, and we’d agreed to go there. To be honest, a milkshake sounded damn good right now as the sun beat down on me with a vengeance.
“Eh, all right. Practiced magic stuff,” she shrugged.
“You’re a psychic, right?” I checked, and her shoulders slumped.
“Yeah,” she mumbled, her face downcast, all her bubbliness gone in an instant.
“Hey, I don’t care, I was just wondering,” I tried to reassure her.
“Yeah, sure, I bet your housemates told you all about me,” she sighed, refusing to look at me.
“Yeah, so? I don’t give a rat’s arse about it. Although, can you choose when to read minds?” I asked carefully.
“Not always. I’ve learned to wall myself off, but sometimes things slip through. Some people broadcast loudly, but other times I’m not focusing enough on keeping my guard up and it lets some through. Other times I’ll let it down,” she shrugged.
“Like when you asked about seeing one of the boys naked?” I smirked as I raised an eyebrow.
She pursed her lips, but I could see the smile threatening to break.
“Sorry,” she said, but I could tell she really wasn’t. “Could you blame me? Those boys are hot as fuck!”
I laughed and shook my head as she lightened and smiled.
“Sounds like it’s a lot of work keeping people’s thoughts out,” I said.
“Yeah, it is,” Emma frowned, as if she hadn’t expected me to care or understand.
“So what do you do? I’ve read psychics can have an array of abilities depending on their bloodlines.”
“Well, obviously there’s the mind-reading, although I try not to advertise that,” she scoffed, “then there’s the communing with dead, readings, and occasional visions. And since I’m still a witch, I specialize in potions like the rest of my family. I’m still learning to control my visions, as sometimes they happen randomly. Can be past, current or future things,” she shrugged.
“That’s pretty epic,” I murmured. Being able to glimpse the future? Now that was wicked, and communing with the dead? I instantly thought of my parents, but pushed it away. They’d died long ago now, no need to dig it back up.
“I guess, I’m fairly used to it, I’m not the only one in the family with it, but I’m the only one with the mind-reading thing, thanks to my dad being a pixie,” she shrugged.
“Must be hard, being able to hear thoughts like that,” I murmured. “You must hear some nasty stuff.”
“Yeah, you learn things you’d rather not know. Ever read the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris? She hits the nail on the head in that. If you haven’t, maybe the show, True Blood?” Emma looked at me, those grey eyes bright and cheery again.
“No, sorry, I do read, but not as much as I did before I started working full time. Moving here should free up a fair chunk of time though, maybe I’ll see if the Maleny library has them,” I mused.
“I can lend them to you? I own them,” Emma said eagerly.
“Awesome, I’d like that.”
“So any luck with figuring out why you’ve got the ability to sense animal illnesses?” Emma asked as we slid into one of the booths at Dingo Diner.
Gina was wearing the actual uniform today, as the one she’d previously worn wasn‘t the same as mine. It consisted of a black shirt with the Dingo Diner logo sprawled on it, and black shorts. The text was a sandy, desert orange with a cut-out of Ayers rock behind it. She greeted us warmly and expressed her excitement for my starting day on Saturday. She seemed almost more excited than I was. Henry was too busy frying up orders for the other waiting patrons, but he gave me a quick wave before focusing back on the task at hand.
We ordered some milkshakes and a small hot chips to share, and Gina said
she’d bring it out.
“No, Lucas said he checked the supernatural web but got no answers,” I sighed. “Nothing in the info about pixies either that states anything.”
“Huh, weird. I’ve never heard of it either, maybe it is your werewolf side somehow. Maybe you’re the first ever genetic anomaly,” she grinned as those eyebrows rose nearly into her hairline.
“Doubt it,” I chuckled.
“Hey, ever done a reading? Maybe it’ll give you some answers?” she suggested as she tapped those bright red fingernails on the table.
“No, what do you do?” I asked.
“I use special supe tarot cards that my mom got for me. I use your aura and energy to select out cards that line up with you. It’s a bit hard to explain, but it’s the real deal with us psychics, not that fake crap most of the humans do,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
“Only most of the humans?”
“Yeah, some have trace lines of psychic in them, not enough to be supe, but enough to access a little of the magic. It’s a different kind of magic to most, an otherworldly kind,” she waved it off as she delved into her bag.
She pulled out a deck of cards and set it on the table.
“You keen?” she asked with a wide smile.
“Sure, why not,” I shrugged. What harm could be done? Besides, I was curious how it worked.
Just at that moment, Gina strode over to deliver our milkshakes and hot chips in record time.
“Enjoy,” Gina nodded, giving me a bright smile before heading back behind the counter. It seemed the afternoon was a rather busy period. Good to know.
“All right, so, to start, what is it you want to get some insight on today?” Emma asked as her expression turned serious and she withdrew the deck of gold-backed cards from their wooden case.
“My ability,” I said as I sipped my vanilla malt milkshake.
“Anything else?” she asked as she shuffled the deck, and I could swear there was a faint green glow to her eyes.
“My future?” I shrugged, and Emma’s mouth curved into a smirk.
“Doesn’t everyone,” she murmured as she divided the deck into four piles.
“When were you born?” she asked.
“20th of April, 2000.”
“Parents’ names?”
“Gerard and Christine Smoak,” I murmured, hating that I had to bring them up. It was always a little difficult for me. I’d never had a chance to really know them. They’d died when I was six.
“They’re deceased?” Emma clarified. I didn’t remember ever telling her that, but she was psychic.
I just nodded.
“How?” she asked, and normally the question would’ve made my chest squeeze, but this time I knew it was just part of the process.
“Car accident.”
“Hmm,” she pursed her lips.
“What?” I frowned.
“Nothing,” she said as she removed two of the four piles and set them back into the case.
“All right, close your eyes, I’m going to focus on your energy for this one, channel it to choose a pile,” she said as she held a hand over the piles and offered me her other one.
I did as told and took her warm hand, shivering as I felt a strange, foreign tingling sensation coursing through me.
Nothing like my own electric one, this one felt strange and soft, rippling through my own energy.
“Okay, it’ll be this one,” she said after a moment, and released my hand. “You can open your eyes.”
I did, glancing down at the last remaining pile.
“This next part will be completely my doing. I’ll use your aura to choose the cards, and I’ll decipher their meaning,” she said as she plucked a chip from the box and tossed it back.
I grabbed a few for myself as she swirled her hand over the pile slowly.
It glowed with a faint green, eerie color as the pile floated up and the cards began shuffling themselves.
I watched in amazement, glancing around at the other patrons hesitantly.
Gina was watching with mild interest, but most other patrons didn’t care about our little card reading session. Right. Supes. It was normal to them.
Five cards floated out of the pile, setting face down on the table before us. The glowing pile drifted to the side, and Emma caught it and set it back into the box as the glowing subsided.
“All right,” she breathed as she began flipping the cards over.
I read the cards, impressed at the hand-painted images on each. The first one read ‘The Father’, and had a stoic man posed on it. The second was ‘The Eye’, the iris an array of vibrant colors. The third was ‘The Lone Wolf’, a beautifully painted white wolf standing alone in a forest. The fourth was ‘Family’, picturing faceless figures embracing. And the final one was ‘The Banshee’, it had a strange, shadowy figure floating on it in a hood and white flowing dress.
Emma’s eyes glowed a soft green as she flicked them over the five cards, studying them.
I munched on some more chips, my eyes constantly drifting back to the Banshee one. I’d read about them, a rare creature that brought death with it. Was it the supe version of the death card?
God, I hoped not.
I slurped my milkshake uneasily, but then Emma frowned and sat back.
“It’s not the clearest interpretation, the spirits aren’t very forthcoming today,” she said, her eyes perplexed.
“The spirits?” I arched an eyebrow.
“I use a combination of my magic and communing with the dead to get the best result. Some of these are vague, but some aren’t. The first one, ‘The Father’, symbolizes that all the answers you seek come from him. So I’m understanding this as meaning your ability is coming from his side of the family. So maybe an anomaly with the werewolf gene,” she shrugged. “Hard to tell, but definitely your father.”
“He was just a werewolf,” I frowned. All the answers? I’d only really had one question.
“Did you though?” Emma asked, and I saw her mentally slap herself when she realized I hadn’t said it aloud. “Sorry, my walls go down a bit when I do this,” she apologized before clearing her throat and moving on. “The Eye’ symbolizes you’re being watched over or sought out, but this is a little obscure. I don’t get a positive vibe from this, so best be careful. ‘The Lone Wolf’ is clear. It says you’ve lost your main family and are estranged from all others. Your own choosing, for the best too. I get a feeling that there’s some dark history with your aunt, more-so her partner, well, more than one partner,” Emma frowned, pursing her lips at me in hopes I’d elaborate on this meaning.
“Yeah, I’d rather not talk about it,” I said as I stiffened. I hadn’t expected the reading to reveal that. It was something I preferred to pretend never happened.
“Okay,” she breathed, accepting my unwillingness to share. I was glad she didn’t push it. “The ‘Family’ card symbolizes your new family, relationships that will flourish in the time to come. Romance seems to be entwined in this one too,” she winked, moving completely away from the previous issue, which relaxed me. “And strangely, the whispers say it’s not monogamous,” she chuckled.
“What does that mean?” I asked, baffled by this revelation.
“More than one partner?” she gave me a stupefied look.
“I know what monogamous means,” I chuckled.
“It’s vague. I have a feeling it’s your housemates,” she winked.
“Is that your intuitive side or your wishful side?” I shot back, and she just grinned mischievously.
Her expressed sobered as she looked back down at the last card.
“This last one is a worry. The reading is extremely weird for this one. It’s hard for me to decipher. Something about your past, present, and future, all in one. You’ve lost some people, although their death is not what it seems. Death will be a part of your life, but as to how, it’s vague. Maybe your illness sensing in animals, it’s mostly fatal stuff, right?”
I nodded,
a chill running through me at her words. Their death was not what it seemed? Was that my parents? They died in a car accident. At least, that was what the reports said, and what I’d been told.
“Could just be that. I’m sorry, this one’s really hard to gauge. Normally it’s a symbol of an upcoming death. The Banshee is said to wail before someone dies, the bringer of death.” She frowned.
“Not creepy or concerning at all,” I muttered.
“Don’t take it to heart, it’s not a very accurate reading, which is weird. Most of the time I can do readings quite well. You’re unique,” she grinned as she took a big gulp of her strawberry milkshake.
“So don’t be worried about ‘The Banshee’?”
“No, whatever it means, you can’t change anyway. I could get my mom to do a reading on you if you’d like, she’s been doing it far longer, may get a better idea,” she suggested.
“Maybe, it couldn’t hurt,” I murmured, perplexed at this reading. What did it all mean? A death not what it seemed, the romance aspect, and then the banshee? It was definitely confusing.
And quite worrying.
16
I stared around the darkened house, fear niggling inside me as the moon shone eerily through the window.
“Marrrrcccccuuuusss,” a singsong voice called out from upstairs.
I knew I wasn’t Marcus, I was me, and yet, at the same time, I was him.
And I knew who the voice belonged to, because it terrified me.
“Anna,” I murmured, my voice a mix of my own feminine voice and Marcus’s low voice.
I shot up the stairs, moving with the speed of a newly turned vampire.
Memories of Annabelle turning me despite my protests, of her draining me dry and declaring our eternal life together was imminent.
I’d awoken, well, Marcus had, to find myself in a shallow grave on an old farm on the outskirts of Maple Grove. I’d clawed my way through the dirt, surprisingly not choking on it as I struggled to rise. I didn’t gasp for air when I surfaced, for my lungs required no oxygen. A hunger filled me, driving me to head into town, but I fought the urge to enter any of the homes where I could hear those steady thumpings beckoning me. Heartbeats.