by Shay Cabe
I opt to tell her the truth. “The guys have some gal stalkers.”
She chuckles and says, “They’re too chicken to tell them to buzz off. Those girls have been nothing but a pain in the ass since last year. I even tried talking to their mamas about it but it got me nowhere.”
“They seem to think that getting rid of me will fix the problem.”
“It’s sad that they haven’t realized they are the problem. Did you get on the boys?”
“Yeah, I was a bit… mad.”
She chuckles again and looks at the jeep. “I see you packed the rest of your stuff. I spoke to the lawyer today, he filed for custody and pulled in a few favors. The judge approved it and the papers will be sent to the address your dad provided. I doubt he’ll contest it but just in case I have backups ready. I tried to get him on the phone but he’s not answering.”
The relief is instant and the guilt fleeting. “Did you have the lawyer contact the firm for the estate?”
“Yes, everything is being transferred and you’ll have access to anything you need within forty-eight hours. I’ve also arranged for movers to take out his things and place them in a storage facility and the house will be put up for sale by the end of the month.”
“Wow, Maggie—you’re fast. Thank you for taking care of all that.”
“I’m raising four teenage boys, I have to be and you know that I don’t mind doing that at all. I’m rather good at those types of things.” She sips her lemonade and then looks at me for the first time. A warning that I’m not going to like the subject change. “How much do you know about the bond?”
“Mom’s grimoire is sketchy on it and only gave some basic information. I know it's rare and that it lasts a lifetime but that’s all, really.” I know the rumors but I don’t bother mentioning those.
“Did you know that witch-born are always the same age as the witch they’re bound to?” I shake my head. “They’re born within a few months of each other and to date the largest collective was only three.” She sips her lemonade again and continues rocking. “The bond forms when the witch takes their first breath. They don’t even have to be near each other for it to happen.”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?” The boys obviously knew, but no one told me anything and it’s annoying and unfair.
“You were young and incredibly strong for a witch your age. Your mom was concerned that telling you would change you somehow, that it would affect your relationship with them.”
“Sometimes you grown-ups don’t know everything you think you do,” I comment and pour another glass of drink.
“When I saw you the first time, minutes after you were born, I had a vision. In it, I saw you hovering over a field stained with blood, below you were four beasts and in that vision you were so angry that it scared me enough to tell your mother. I think that was my first mistake.” This grabs my complete attention.
“You thought I’d gone dark in it,” I state the obvious.
“Actually, no, but your mother took it that way and no matter how much I argued against it she wouldn’t budge. She lived with that misplaced fear and every time you grew in power she got more paranoid about it. It was a bone of contention between the two of us. I argued that as the seer it was my job to interpret it, not hers but your mom was idealistic and powerful and—“
“Too stubborn to listen to anyone. I vaguely remember.”
“At times, yes. I had to convince her to even let you around the boys. Their bonding with you had already begun and when they went extended amounts of time without being near you, they got sick. When your father took you away… it was hard on them… but instead of seeing why you left they focused on what it did to them.” She sips her drink and sits it down. “I hope you’ll be patient with them, because whatever is in your future you have to face it together.”
“Does a witch bond have to be romantic?”
She laughs a little and the tense frown between her eyes relaxes. “No, but they often are. I would rather the five of you wait a bit on the more physical aspects of it.” Ah, there’s mama coming out to play.
“I won’t be forced into anything by magic and I won’t let them be either. I control my own destiny, no one else—not even them.” My statement encompasses all the aspects.
“Don’t mistake the bond, Nora. All it does is give you a supernatural attachment to them, not an emotional one. Anything past that is your own doing. There’s no spell in the world that can make you love someone.”
Inside I relax a little, that’s good. Great, in fact. It’ll be on my terms not some fate crap that I don’t care about.
“They aren’t forced either. To be connected to you, yes, but loving you is their own choice.”
Snorting I say, “Ha, they love me like a toothache, Maggie.”
“So you say.” She smiles at me. “What made you stop by and get your things from the house?”
I decide to tell her about the dead animals too. This brings her frown back.
“It’s unusual for a shifter to continue that behavior. Typically, it’s one large gift. A deer or other prey animal of similar size. A bunch of small ones make no sense to me. Was there anything else?”
“A rose.” I slump back in my chair and stare out at the open yard in front of the house that’s surrounded by trees. Birds are digging around for worms or whatever bugs they eat. A fat groundhog pops up to look at us before continuing to eat his field salad. The picture is idyllic and calming until I see the two cars coming down the road.
“I’m pretty sure they’re bitten, like me. There’s this feeling of taint to him… a wrongness I can’t figure out and my instincts tell me they’re dangerous.” But as I watch the four guys climb out of the cars and prowl towards us I realize that the danger is right in front of me, because my damn heart rate picks up. My cheeks heat with a blush and butterflies while absent in the field are alive and well in my traitorous stomach.
“Any idea who it is?” she asks me.
“No, it could be anyone honestly. With them being a witch first it changes the game. Even a weaker powered witch is capable of hiding themselves from us with enough experience, especially if they have a group of helping them. Something this guy does have.”
“You sound more educated than most senior witches I know. Who taught you?”
“I did. Mom left me all of her books.” It took years for me to go through all of them and I keep them all in a spelled hidden box that's the size of a jewelry box. My Mom made it and as far as I know, it's unique in its creation. I don’t say any of this out loud, some things should remain secret.
“She had quite the collection, if I recall. I have my own, in the library. Feel free to read them anytime you wish. I’ll give the grimoire permission for you to search through it.” I thank her and then my attention is grabbed by the group of trouble heading towards me. I hold my glass in front of me like a shield while the guys walk up the sidewalk in a slow mo tandem movie walk. I wonder if they do that shit on purpose?
“Hey Nora,” Phoenix says, sitting on the top step with his back against the side of the porch so he can turn to look at me. I nod at him but that’s all I do. I might have goofed off with them at the lake, I may be friendly with them a good bit of the time—some of the time, but I don’t trust their motives. Not yet.
“Why’d you ghost?” Oz asks, sitting beside of Phoenix in a similar pose.
“I left you to deal with your groupies before it becomes my problem to deal with,” I say after staring at Hez who looks away.
“Say what?” Barrett asks, propping one foot on the bottom step and crossing his arms. His eyes go automatically to Hez and Phoenix.
“The clingy girls who think I’m in the way of their happily ever after. They keep coming at me as if getting rid of me will make you propose and ride off into their insane sunset,” I explain, adding more sarcasm than I probably need to.
“You mean Hez and Phoenix, right?”
I shrug. “I mean all of you. I’m
sure you and Oz have your own set of clingers.”
Maggie laughs under her breath and gets up and goes into the house. Giving us the privacy that I don’t want but probably need to have to say what I need to say.
“I told her—“ Phoenix begins.
I cut him off before he can feed me the same crappy line from before. “You didn’t tell her enough. Deal with it. I don’t care if you date them, sleep with them or only let them sit on your laps at lunch time—make them not my problem,” I point at them as I speak.
“You want us to date other girls?” Phoenix asks softly, all humor gone from his face.
“I want you to do what you want to do. I don’t control your lives. We’ll find a way to deal with this bond stuff but don’t let it stop you from being free to make your own choices about things.”
“We have made our choice,” Hez says standing and moving past me to go into the house. The screen door shuts with a bang.
“We’ll make sure they don’t bother you anymore, Nora—but…” Phoenix says climbing to his feet. “You need to accept that we’re part of your life forever.”
“So you can play more head games with me, Phoenix? No thanks.”
“Until I saw you again, I thought that we were angry but you’re raging, Nora. I guess that leaves us to prove to you that it’s genuine—that we’re taking this serious. But you gotta give us a chance to do that.” I want to believe him, I do. His green eyes pierce me right in the heart with the sincerity in them.
“I moved in here, what’s that say?” All three brothers look at me in surprise.
“For real?” Barrett asks moving up a few steps.
“Yeah, so I guess we’ll figure something out but keep in mind, if you try to mess with my head again I’ll kick your asses and there’ll be no forgiveness.” This time I stand and go into the cool dimness of the house. Hez is sitting on the stairs and I walk around him without saying anything.
Phoenix is right, I’m angry. So much so at times that I worry about myself but I’m still squishy underneath it all and they cut me to the core. Saying ‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t fix it. They have to work harder than that. If that makes me a bitch so be it. I’ve spent most of my life being let down or betrayed by some of the closest people to me, I will not spend the rest of my life being walked all over.
I deserve better.
“Are you saying you forgive us for before?” Phoenix asks softly, halfway up the stairs behind me. I pause at the top and search myself for it. I can’t hide the fact that I missed them, I love them—always have. I can’t hide the fact that being around them again feels right, it feels good.
I also can’t hide the fact that their attempt to manipulate me because they wanted payback hurt because they made me feel something other than the need for revenge that's burning a hole inside of my heart. Then they took it away, yanked it out from under me like a rug and went, ha. I don’t even feel bad anymore for not contacting them.
Nothing was on purpose. Especially watching my mother be murdered.
“Earn it,” I answer, gritting my teeth to keep from saying anything grouchy and unneeded.
“We can do that.” It's barely loud enough for me to hear, but I do. Instead of saying anything else I finish the walk to my room and shut the door. Leaning against it I slide down to the floor as Cookie appears and leans against me. For the fiftieth time in a couple of weeks, I cry silently into Cookies fur.
Chapter Fifteen
When Maggie calls me down to dinner, I almost don’t go, but all this hiding in my room I’ve been doing is uncommon for me. I like being outside and moving, not hiding on my bed like a five-year-old with a broken heart. Or in my case a sixteen-year-old. I came to this conclusion after a few hours of staring at the ceiling and listening to Cookie snore.
They made me hope and open myself up and then essentially took a shit on me to put a band-aid on an old wound that needed to be talked about, worked out. Yes, I didn’t contact them but they didn’t contact me either. Yes, I missed them and I’m pretty sure they missed me too. Yes, I didn’t know about the bond and that caused them pain, but they did and didn’t tell me.
Something I was feeling bad about until their little crappy play. I would never cause them pain on purpose—a memory of punching Oz in the throat springs into my mind. Okay, I would never cause them emotional pain on purpose because saying I won’t punch another one in the throat or worse would be a lie.
After dinner, I’m taking a walk. I haven’t been exercising regularly and the last thing in the world I want to do is to lose all the work I put into being in fighting condition. Plus walking alone, in the dark, has another benefit. Slowly, I walk down the stairs, unsure of what’s waiting on me. When I push open the kitchen door a crack, I discover the guys and Maggie sitting at the table talking companionably. I also see the place setting for me.
I watch Phoenix pluck a roll off the plate that’s piled high with them and sit one on my empty plate. He knows I love them. Oz grabs a salad bowl and fills it with salad and extra cheese, just like I like it. He sits it beside the plate. Barrett gets up and walks to the fridge to fill an empty glass with sweet tea and bring it back to the table. He also sits it beside of my plate.
Hez, who I didn’t expect to do anything stands up and puts the spaghetti sauce down first and then puts the noodles on—the weird way I eat it. He adjusts the folded napkin and then returns to his own seat.
How incredibly sweet of all of them and... sly. They did it when they thought I wouldn’t see. How do I thank someone who’s being sweet sneakily? It also makes me wonder if I was giving Maggie all the credit when there’s a chance they’ve been doing things like this all along. There was a rhythm to it that only happens from practice.
“You going to join us, Nora?” Maggie asks without lifting her eyes from her plate. With a small huff I fully open the door and go to my place at the table. All the guys watch every move I make. Hesitantly, I smile and start eating. There’s a pause, like the one before a big storm before they all start talking again.
“I have a game tomorrow, it’s going to be hard not to hurt someone. We’re playing a full zoo team and they play dirty,” Hez says, glancing at me. I fight the urge to smile. A zoo team is a full shifter team, no witches. They do play dirty and hard. There are always serious injuries after this kind of game.
“Better guard your ass bro, their defense has a hard on for you,” Oz teases.
“Me? The last time we played them the entire team chased you around the school grounds for over an hour,” Hez counters.
“He should’ve guarded his girl better,” Oz says then seems to remember I’m in the room; his eyes shoot straight to me. I raise an eyebrow and keep eating my spaghetti. Why would I care if he was doing some dude’s girl?
I can’t promise I won’t care if he’s doing it now, no matter what I say about them dating or being with other people. Not that I’ll tell any of them about it. I’m not their girlfriend, I have absolutely no say about who they’re banging. I try to ignore the fact it makes me chew my food so hard I can hear my teeth grinding.
“Isn’t that the one that tried to give you a love potion and instead it gave you pink dots on your face?” Barrett asks, popping a piece of roll into his mouth with a satisfied smile.
Thank you, Mr. Moodlightener.
“You sure that’s all she gave you?” I tease. The silence of the room makes me regret speaking up. Then they’re all laughing at once, even Maggie. That insecure part of me that’s going to be weird for a little while around them, relaxes just a little. Fluffy-sarcasm is my go to in most situations. The poke without the sting.
“Better be, Oz,” Maggie warns smiling but with total Mom eyes.
“Uh, never laid a finger on her mom,” Oz says with his mouth but the twinkle in his eye says something different.
Planting a smile on my face I chew slower so I don’t break a tooth.
After dinner I duck out the front door before any of the guys notice I
’m leaving. I’m sure they will soon enough and I’m counting on it. My plan is to lure out the stalker. I didn’t tell Maggie because she’d be upset with me but I think that me walking alone, with it being dark will potentially make him want to say hi. That’s how it works in the movies and for once I’m willing to give it a try. No shame in playing the ditzy bait girl.
Plus, I know the guys can track me, which will mean they can track him since I’m hoping that he’ll show himself.
I’m about halfway through town, almost to the park which is mostly wooded and secluded when I feel the first stirrings of someone following me. My phone buzzes in my pocket and I pull it out to look at it.
This is Phoenix, Oz and Barrett are behind you, trying to get a location on whoever is following you.
Good, they did what I thought. The phone vibrates again.
I get that you’re a badass but this guy might be too, it’s stupid to try to deal with it alone.
I type a rather rude answer and then backspace. I can’t admit that I knew they’d follow, because it might hurt their pride. I did this because I honestly don’t think the guy wants to hurt me, yet. I think he wants me to know he’s ‘interested’. Isn’t that the result of him leaving all of those dead animals?
Stay back and don’t scare him off. I got this.
His answer is immediate. Nora, we’re not going to let you confront him alone.
No dip, but stay back until I actually need help.
The little bubble that shows that he’s typing pops up and then stops and then pops up again and one word finally comes through. Fine.
Smirking to myself I put the phone back in my pocket and start humming to myself.
“Your friends are close behind me. Did you tell them to follow you?” The voice that comes out of the darkness behind me is distorted with magic. I pause and then keep walking. He’ll follow, I’m confident about that.
“They tend to do whatever they want.” I keep my voice light, adding a little quiver to it as if I’m startled. “Why are you following me?”