by Lynn Veevers
Kenneth and Owen looked at each other and then at Kaya. “Do you still feel watched?” Owen asked.
“No. It’s gone,” Kaya said, completely perplexed.
Cole, Blaire, and Samantha came through the back door and onto the patio.
“Well, whatever or whoever it was just disappeared. Listen up, we need to get the festivities over with and get the house cleared out,” Samantha said, perturbed.
She marched into the house to round up the guests so presents could be opened, cake could be eaten, and people could start leaving. She was on a mission and nothing was going stop her. After she had rounded everyone up, Kenneth ripped through his mountain of gifts, which consisted mostly of gift cards in various cash denominations. Kenneth got a new motorcycle helmet from Kaya. It was black with a wolf howling at the moon etched artistically on the side in silver. His first name appeared on the back in silver Old English lettering. Samantha gave him a new leather jacket which boasted their family’s coat of arms on the back. It had a stag dominating the image and three clovers.
Owen’s gift was the most impressive by far. When Kenneth opened his father's present, he read the attached letter out loud. “Son, on this, your eighteenth birthday, I felt that giving you something extraordinary was in order. Dad.”
Inside a small box, Kenneth found the key to the barn. In the barn, he found a brand new, royal blue crew cab Dodge. In all the excitement over the truck, they skipped cake altogether and people started heading home. It was, after all, almost ten at night. Kaya, Kenneth, Anissa, and Josh piled into the new truck and he drove it the short distance from the barn to the front of the house.
As they crossed the house’s threshold, Kaya leaned into Kenneth and asked him a question. “How are we going to talk with Josh and Anissa still here?”
He looked as if he had not thought of that.
“Well, Josh is not a problem. He knows the family secret. His father is Scott Macintosh, the doctor our family sees and a close family friend. Josh’s dad delivered all of us,” he said, gesturing at himself and his siblings.
“It is great how you and Josh are close like that. Hey, it is even great he knows about you, but that is just it, he knows about you,” Kaya said resentfully.
“Kays, you can trust Josh.”
Everyone else had regrouped on the back deck except Kenneth and Kaya. They still stood just inside the front door.
“Hey Kenneth, are y’all coming?” Samantha said from the hallway.
“Yeah, we will be there in a second.”
It made Kaya mad that he was acting like keeping her secret was not important, and that he could just decide who could know and who couldn’t. With Blaire, it had been different because she was like Kaya. But Josh, she barely knew. She didn’t know if she could trust him to keep her family secret. At least Blaire had just as much at stake as Kaya did.
“Listen Kenneth, your judgment is just that, your judgment. Not mine. Just because you trust him doesn’t mean I can. He has a loyalty to you, Kenneth, not me. Clearly Anissa is none the wiser about you and your family. What’s wrong, don’t you trust Josh’s judgment? Because I am pretty sure he would say you can trust Anissa with your secrets. Just because Josh says it would be fine doesn’t mean you would take his word for it. Correct me if I’m wrong, Kenneth.”
He gawked at her for three whole seconds before speaking again, but when he did, it was with an angry resentment that matched her’s.
“I can’t believe you don’t trust my judgment!”
Kaya threw her hands up and went to go back out the front door. “I can’t believe you think you have the right to make a decision that should be mine to make. This is not about you, Kenneth, it’s about me!”
She started to open the door to leave when Kenneth caught her by the arm. She whipped around so fast that he took a full step back. She advanced on him, her index finger just inches from his nose, her mood all spit and fire.
“Don’t! Don’t you dare try to stop me. I am going home!”
Never had Kenneth seen an angrier female. The potency of her anger gave him a moment of pause. By the time he realized what he had done wrong, it was too late. She had spun on her heel and walked out. She let the door slam behind her as she walked out into the dark night, alone, with an unknown stalker close by.
6
Harsh Receptions
Fifteen minutes passed and Kaya traveled quite a distance, her fast pace fueled by her absolute anger. The gravel country road was long—about two miles or so—and ended at the paved county road. Her rage started to defuse and it was only then that Kenneth’s concerns started to sink in. She was beginning to think maybe she’d acted rashly. After all, she was walking down a dark road by herself and it was near the middle of the night. Definitely not the smartest thing she had ever done. Kaya’s skin stung with fever and she decided if being as angry as she had been caused physical pain, maybe she shouldn’t let her temper run her.
Thinking about her situation rationally got her nerves up enough to pursue a safer way home. So once again, she willed herself to take to the sky in what was turning out to be her favorite form, the red-tailed hawk. Only, when Kaya concentrated on changing, she was alarmed to find she couldn’t.
Kaya stopped walking for the first time since she’d left the house and surveyed her surroundings. It was a quiet, dark road and nothing seemed amiss. Kaya tried again to morph but couldn’t. She felt weak and disconnected from herself. All the crying and anger had drained her. Maybe she was just too overwhelmed to change.
Swallowing her pride, she started heading back to the house to ask Kenneth to take her home. It was then the feeling started to creep in and dominate her senses. She was being watched again.
It was strong this time, stronger than it had ever been before. There was a rustling in the bushes to the right and a little ways ahead of her. Three figures emerged from those bushes. They were large and vaguely familiar in stature. Kaya realized with a start that they were Lycans.
She remembered what Kenneth had told her about her fear and summoned the strength to suppress it. They were in Hybrid Form and more unnatural looking than even Kenneth had looked, if that was possible. The two on either side of the one in the middle were both clearly wolf variety. The one in the middle was some type of feline and it was hard to tell which kind she actually was. What caught Kaya’s attention the most were their eyes. They were not the yellow she had grown accustomed to, but rather an ethereal, fiery green. A disturbing realization hit her as she looked at these mangy beasts. These were no Natural Lycans but rather the Afflicted variety.
They advanced on her, slowly closing her into a circle. They growled menacingly, making their warning clear. The she-cat was definitely the ring leader here. Kaya remembered how Owen told her that an Afflicted would take the same physical attributes as the Lycan who turned them. Clearly this one’s sire was a rare occurrence, just like Owen, but instead of the Pure Form of a bear, the sire’s Pure Form must have been some type of large cat.
“Run and you will die a slow, painful death,” the she-cat said. She had the same gravelly, subhuman voice Kaya had possessed when she’d morphed into a Lycan.
Kaya was trapped and morphing was pointless because she couldn’t. She’d been trying the whole time.
“I can smell your fear taking root. Your core is stronger than I could have ever imagined. It has taken us months to track you to this little town. Every time I have had you in my sights, you have had those mutts or that woman around you! The woman is not affected by the wrought it just bounces off her. At first I didn’t know why, but it didn’t take me long to figure it out. She has one of those rare gifts which allows her to control animals and it cancels out my wrought. I would have taken you as soon as you matured but she is always around you,” the she-cat snarled, moving ever closer.
She circled Kaya like she had all the time in the world. She was right, Kaya’s fear was starting to rise to the surface and she was furious with herself. A sing
le tear spilled from her left eye and it was all the invitation the she-cat required. She pounced, the force of her making contact with Kaya’s shoulders knocking her back eight feet and to the ground with the she-cat landing on top of her.
As the she-cat pushed her weight into Kaya’s chest, it made it hard to breath. She winced in pain and quaked with terror that had become full tilt. Drool pooled at the corners of her attacker’s mouth which reeked of dead flesh. The smell made Kaya’s stomach twist.
“It will be over soon enough. Why would I hand Senka your magical core when I can have it for myself? She is delusional! As of tonight, I am no longer her minion,” she declared with a twisted grin of anticipation.
Her entourage let out a series of yips and howls, seemingly imploring her to get on with it. A dim thought lit the back of Kaya’s mind and powered its way to the forefront of her awareness.
This is it. This is how Mom and Dad died.
The thought incited a rage she had felt only once before, and it broke the wrought holding her. She morphed and it sent the she-cat flying off her. The she-cat picked herself off the tree she landed in and charged Kaya. Her two companions quickly sprang to do the same, but she turned on them and hissed with remarkable volume.
“Heel, mutts! She’s mine!” she screamed.
Kaya didn’t need to look at herself to realize she had morphed into a Lycan Hybrid Form. This form had a mind of its own and it was quickly taking over. Kaya and the she-cat were now in a circling dance of death, each gauging the other, looking for an opening. The human in Kaya wanted to ask her rival where she could find Senka, but the beast she had become had no interest in conversation.
The she-cat made her move and charged again. Kaya sidestepped her easily, noting the she-cat was much slower than her. Taking the opportunity to attack, she knocked the mangy beast to the ground.
Kaya snapped at her throat but narrowly missed and caught the lower jaw instead. It made the she-cat roar in pain. Razor sharp claws cut into Kaya’s side and had her screaming in an agony that blurred her vision. The she-cat went for another pass with claws extended, this time going for the chest. In an effort to dodge the feline’s strike she threw all her weight to the left and the she-cat’s claws sliced past the armpit instead leaving a deep gash. The two males paced around them impatiently. Clearly they wanted to get in on the action, but didn’t dare give into their impulses. Kaya grabbed her side where the she-cat had struck her. It burned like fire. Kaya forced herself to block it out. She regained her footing and went for the she-cat’s neck again. This time, her strike found its mark. Kaya was on top of her and without a second thought, delivered the fatal blow in the fashion Owen had told her about and then stood to her full height.
Her other two attackers stood there too shocked to move, but they recovered quickly and she felt their fear come pouring through her senses. Its smell was heady and did much to stoke her instinctual fire to kill them. This form was quickly taking Kaya over and if she was going to survive its control, these two needed to die, now.
They turned tail and started to flee only to run into Kenneth, Samantha, and Cole. They were all in Pure Form. Samantha was huge; surprisingly, she was a considerable amount bigger than her brothers.
The she-cat’s two companions came to a screeching halt and started growling and baring their teeth. They were about to attack when a huge black bear came barreling around the bend in the road. He was larger than his wolf counterparts and looked wholly ferocious with his switchblade-like claws and mouthful of razor-sharp teeth. He was lightning fast for his utterly enormous proportions.
Owen wasted no time jumping into action. He made a running pass at the first of the two Afflicted. He grabbed him by the back of the neck, threw him to the ground, and placed a massive paw on his back, silencing the yelping Afflicted by finishing him off. He slowly stepped over the husk of a body and zeroed in on the second Afflicted. The other attacker took off running into the bushes.
Owen cleared the greenery in a single leap as he took off after him. After a short-lived commotion, the Afflicted went flying over the bushes and landed in the road, face down and dead as a door nail. Kenneth changed back to Human Form and ran to where Kaya had collapsed on the ground. She hadn’t noticed, but somewhere in all the commotion, she had assumed her Human Form and was lying on the road in her own blood. Kaya’s senses were fading and she was slipping into darkness. The last thing she heard was Owen’s worried voice.
“We need to get her back to the house. She is bleeding out.”
Kaya was sure she was dying. Her consciousness was quickly deserting her and before she knew it everything went blank.
Kaya was drifting in a weightless existence. She stood by herself in this black nothingness.
The darkness was absolute and she started to fear the worst when the blackness started to soften into shades of grey, and then finally the light of colors. At first it was just colors, but before long, shapes started to take form.
She was sitting in her parent’s house in Washington. Kaya sat at the small kitchen table, watching as her mother returned from the stove with a kettle in her hand. She walked to the table and set the kettle down on a pot holder. She then retrieved two cups from the cupboard, grabbed the canister of cocoa from the counter, and returned to the table.
“Hot chocolate?” she asked.
Kaya nodded her head yes. Hot chocolate was one of her favorite things.
“Mom, am I dead?”
She giggled, a sound Kaya missed so much, gazed at Kaya adoringly, and laid a hand on her shoulder.
“No, dear, not yet.”
“How do you know? I mean this is the plane of the dead, right?” Kaya asked her.
She set the cup of cocoa in front of Kaya on the table. “Yes, Kaya, this is the plane of the dead, and the dead do not have auras. You still have yours, but it’s dim. Your physical body is waging a war. If you want to continue on the plane of the living, you can’t stay here. You have to go back. Your physical body needs your spiritual strength to survive whatever has happened. I sensed your presence here, sensed you were lost, and pulled you here to me. As much as I would like to sit and chat, you don’t have time. Go find your way back. If you survive, I will come and visit you to learn what happened. Leave yourself open. If not, we will sit at this table again and you can tell me the tale then.”
Kaya gave her mother a hug and she felt a push through the plane in what she hoped was the right direction.
Kaya was suddenly cold, like she was lying in a freezer.
“Kaya, come on back,” she heard Blaire saying somewhere off in the distance.
“Is she going to make it?” Kenneth was asking.
Blaire told him she wasn’t certain when a flash of pain in Kaya’s stomach ripped her out of her semi-conscious state. Her spiritual-self had reunited with her physical-self and it hurt. Blaire’s face came into focus. She was looking at Kaya intently.
“Welcome back, Kaya. I was starting to think we lost you. Cole told me everything and I think your choice to take on Hybrid Form may have not only saved you from becoming Afflicted, but also saved your life. Your core is still pure and does not have even a hint of unnatural taint to it. I don’t think I need to tell you how lucky you are,” she said to Kaya.
“No, you don’t. Trust me, I get it,” Kaya said in a raspy voice.
“It would appear not only can you morph into a Lycan, but also acquire the attributes of that form to the fullest extent. It makes me wonder if your ability to morph is really an ability at all,” Blaire said to Kaya.
“What are you talking about?” Kaya said.
“I’ve only ever met a small handful of other Natural Mystics and so I wanted to know more about you, especially since your father was of a magical nature also. Kenneth was telling me about your morphing and the limitations as they appear in your father’s tribe. He explained it was an ability only attainable by men. So that right there doesn’t fit for you, but then he told me you had also morp
hed into a Lycan. It occurred to me you might be mistaking a gift for ability. There is a gift that would fit your morphing “ability” better. It is rare, really rare, and has only been claimed by one person over many life times, an Exceptional,” she said.
Kenneth got really excited and added his two sense by saying, “An Exceptional! Lycans have one of those too. For our Core Race the Exceptional is called the Eximius!”
“OK Blaire, you’ve lost me,” Kaya said.
“What I mean is that this one person is reincarnated. The gift this one will manifest is specific to them and called Scathan. Scathan means “mirror” in Gaelic. This special Natural Mystic is called the Pinnacle and appears every seven-hundred years or so. The Pinnacle is always female, always multi-gifted, and powerful. She is also only reincarnated into one of the four original lines. The Gallagher family being the oldest, then my line, Macintosh, the O’Brien’s, followed by Lynch. There are many other clans, but they are removed and branch from the original four. Macintosh, O’Brien, and Lynch all came around the same time, give or take a few hundred years, but Gallagher came almost a millennium before. They are by far the oldest line. So the question is, which family is yours?” Blair finished.
Kaya sighed and embarrassment wreathed her features. “I don’t know what my mother’s maiden name was. I should know, but I don’t,” Kaya confessed.
“That’s easy. Gallagher. It's was Colleen and Diana Gallagher. Your maternal grandparents had no sons, so when your aunt and mother married, the name was lost,” Owen said.
Kaya noticed Blaire holding in barely suppressed excitement.
“You may very well be the Pinnacle. The only way to know for sure is to see if you can take another’s form and powers. Only the Pinnacle can do that,” Blaire said excitedly.
A thought entered Kaya’s head and was quickly followed by a sense of dread.
“You don’t mean turn into someone else do you?” Kaya asked.