by Bryce Evans
“I like how you think, little sister. Now, who can we get to help us out? If we include my mates they’ll just take over and try to keep us under lock and key, which will screw up everything. I want them included, but I know how they think, and if they know ahead of time they’ll hide us, and then we’ll be looking over our shoulders for the rest of our lives. This way we get the plan together and get our powers working while he has no clue we know he’s coming.” River smiled. “It’s a perfect plan. We just have to be on top of every single detail.”
“Okay, then who do we get to help us out? I know the first person should be Lilly. She knows how to keep a secret and she knows how to handle herself. Plus, I’ve trained with her — she’s sneaky as hell and stronger than you’d think. She’s kicked my ass several times,” Star suggested.
“I agree. Her brothers have taught her all their tricks and she has no problem using them. But most of all, I think she can bring people together without them realizing she’s putting them there for a reason. She’s a strategic planner, that’s for sure.”
“Now, let’s tell Sky, and then we all need to practice our powers. Also, if we use Lilly then Sky can practice on her since she’s a wolf.” Star smiled. She loved it when a plan started coming together. She wasn’t going to cry anymore about what-ifs. Today she was going to start kicking ass and taking names; and that included Jansen and Banks. They should’ve called and let her know that they were going to be out of town and that they were okay. They lived in the same house, for goodness sakes. But once she did finally talk to them she’d drop the bomb on them about only wanting to be friends.
****
“How does that look?” Sky asked as he wrote down the details they could all agree on.
“Looks great. Lilly, do you understand everything?” Star asked.
“Yes. When do we bring in the Unit and my brothers?”
“Not until we have our powers worked out, which brings us to Sky getting to use you as his guinea pig,” River suggested with a smile.
“You’re loving this.” Lilly’s voice was teasing. “The stuff I do for my friends.”
Star smiled as she glanced over at Sky. She could tell that he was happier today for some reason. She’d heard that Sullivan had left town, but River had told her last night that he said he was coming back, so she figured that might have something to do with it.
“Hey, you know you need to shift so he can try to talk to you and use his mind control on you,” Star pointed out. “Come over here and take your clothes off behind the door.”
Lilly was such a good sport. She jumped up and went over to the bathroom door, changed clothes, and then trotted out on all fours. She was such a beautiful wolf, with black fur and a white spot that looked like some type of symbol on her stomach.
“Pretty wolf,” River teased, and Lilly bumped her as she walked past. She was still a good-size wolf even though she was such a petite person.
“Lilly, if you would, stand right there and don’t move. I’m going to try and talk to you; without speaking, of course. I’ve never done this, so I really don’t know if it’ll even work.” Sky took in deep breaths then released them. He tried to clear his mind and think of nothing but Lilly, then closed his eyes and imagined saying her name. ‘Lilly, Lilly, can you hear me.’ Sky opened his eyes, and watched but nothing happened. He shook out his arms then focused again on the black wolf. Concentrating, Sky said her name in his head, ‘Lilly, if you can hear me, then bark.’
He watched as Lilly’s black eyes got wider before she barked. Sky jumped up, excited. “She did it. She heard me! I told her to bark if she could hear me.”
Star and River ran over and hugged him. Star had the feeling that their plan was finally coming together, and just maybe they’d all live through it.
“Now try making her do something that she doesn’t want to do,” Star suggested. “Remember Lilly, you need to fight whatever Sky tells you to do. We want to see if he can do that, and if he can make you do it then he should be able to do it to anyone.”
Lilly barked again, then sat down on her hind legs and waited.
Sky had to think of something that Lilly wouldn’t want to do. It needed to be something that she’d get mad at him for making her do. If he could do that he’d be ahead of the game.
Without hesitating, Sky reached out in his mind to Lilly and said, ‘Lilly, get up and shift right here in front of me.’ Sky knew that it would piss Lilly off to shift in front of him without having any clothes on, even though he’d close his eyes as soon as her shifting started. She wouldn’t be really mad—wolves were used to shifting in front of each other—but she’d never shifted in front of him. Jonas shifted in his wolf almost every day when he went into the woods behind their house to run.
Lilly started fighting it, but Sky clenched his teeth together, reached out again, and demanded, ‘Shift now, Lilly.’
Sky watched as Lilly started to shift, then closed his eyes. He heard her yell out, “Dammit. How did you do that?”
Sky put his hand over his eyes. “Get dressed and I’ll tell you.”
“Shit, Sky. I don’t care that you’ll see me nude. It’s the fact that I couldn’t stop myself from doing it.” Lilly’s voice was angry, but he knew she wasn’t mad at him; she was upset at not having control over her actions.
He could hear Lilly walking toward the bathroom.
“You really did it,” River whispered.
Sky opened his eyes and looked over at his smiling sisters. The only one who wasn’t smiling was Lilly. She jerked her shirt down and walked over to him. “How did you do that?”
“To be honest with you, I don’t know,” Sky admitted. “I just pictured you in my head and then spoke to you as if I was talking aloud. I did the same when I told you to shift.”
“Do you know how dangerous you would be to all shifters—and even some vampires, I suspect? We’ll need to try that out, because if you can control vampires with your mind then you may be able to shut this vampire down before he even thinks of doing any harm to you. It would make you safe,” Lilly answered. She sat down in the chair, looking up at him in awe.
“I can understand shifters, but how could I control vampires?” he asked Lilly.
“Well, from what I’ve learned though my studies and talking to Reece, if you come from the lineage of the king of vampires, then you may have the power to control others with your mind. Like you, Sky. But only the ones who come from his line can do this. You see, back in the old days, Sindrid Abner, the king, made his own family, and choose only certain people to be part of it. These are the ones who would be able to use mind control on other vampires. But like you said, we just don’t know enough about you and your powers. Hell, you may be able to control us all, but I think that’s going to take a lot of practice,” Lilly commented.
“I guess the only way to tell is to find a strong vampire, one like Reece,” Sky said as he looked over at River. He knew once her mates found out what they’d been planning they’d be mad at her.
“Let’s make sure Star can accurately shoot lightning out of her hands and I can read people’s minds. Might as well try now.” River glanced at Lilly. “You up for a little bit more fun?”
“You’re all crazy if you think I’m going to allow Star to shoot me with electricity. Oh hell no.” Lilly crossed her hands over her chest, shaking her head.
Sky, River, and Star all started laughing.
“No, you goofball, it’s my turn. All I want to do is read your mind, if I can. Later, Star can shoot the stool out from underneath you,” River said, giggling.
“Tell me what I’m thinking now.” Lilly crossed the room and whispered in Sky’s ear, “I’m thinking of the number seven and about horses. If she gets that then she can read my mind.”
River sat down and did exactly what Sky said he’d done, picturing Lilly and then relaxing and waiting. She laughed when she heard Lilly say, ‘I’m thinking about the number seven and about horses, yes River, horses,
you heard me, horses, horses.’
“Horses and the number seven,” River whispered. “Why on earth would you be thinking about horses and the number seven?”
“You did it!” Lilly shouted, running over to River and hugging her. “I’m so amazed at you three. I think we can really do this. We can send that vampire straight to hell! But you know that some vampires and shifters can shield themselves from others.”
“You mean put up mental shields so you can’t get into their minds?” Star asked.
“Yep. You might not be able to connect with someone like Reece, because he’s such a strong vampire. You need to practice just to make sure, then we can kick some ass.”
Everyone laughed except Star. She was worried now. “What if I can’t hit my mark and I hit someone else by mistake? I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“You can do it, Star. I’m so confident that you can that I’m willing to put a big fat apple on my head and pray like hell you knock it off,” Lilly said.
“Hell no. I wouldn’t dare try that. What if I missed? I appreciate the show of faith, Lilly, but no.” She shook her head and walked over to Sky’s desk, took three apples he’d brought to eat that day, and lined them up on the table.
“This is just like having a gun and hitting my mark, so everyone back up just in case it hits something and ricochets off of it.” Star made sure everyone was behind her before she started.
Star slowed her breathing just like she was taught to do when shooting a gun. She decided that she’d use the same principals. She pointed at the first apple and in her mind she shot it, but instead of a bullet hitting the apple, Star shot out electricity. She repeated the process until every apple had been shot off the table. She turned in shock. Why would the Gods give them this type of power?
“I think you’re all set. All you need to do is practice and practice a lot, so that when the time comes, you’ll be ready for him. But I do encourage you all to tell your mates and the Unit. I think we’ll need all the help we can get if he brings a lot of people with him. Something about this situation tells me that we’ll be out-manned and out-gunned,” Lilly said as she got up. “Hey, if you guys don’t need me anymore, I’ve got to go do some more planning for the Valentine’s Dance. Apparently, there are going to be a lot of shifters coming this year. We had to get the hotels downtown and in the surrounding area to give us some rooms. We’ll shuttle them to the lodge but they’ll have to sleep somewhere else.” Lilly waved, then walked out the door.
“What do you think? Should we tell your mates and Jansen and Banks?” Sky asked his sisters.
“No,” Star answered quickly. She couldn’t stop her anger from coming out. She was mad at them, and every time someone mentioned their names she couldn’t let it go. They hadn’t even called her to say, “Hey, just letting you know if you even care that I’m out of town,” or “I’ll be back soon.”
“What’s wrong?” River asked, rubbing little circles over her back.
“Nothing. If you want to tell Reece and Jonas go ahead, but I’m not telling Jansen and Banks. I think it’s best that we keep it to ourselves until we get more practice in.”
“Ok, sweetie. But I have to tell my mates soon. I don’t want them so mad at me that it messes up what we have,” River explained.
Star nodded.
“I’ve got some stuff to do for Larken today on his computer. We need to get back to the lodge before anyone gets curious,” Star said as she hugged her brother.
“Why don’t you come over for lunch at the lodge and practice some of your mind tricks on Jonas and Reece to see if it works on Alphas?” River suggested as she hugged her brother good-bye.
Chapter 14
Star sat at Larken’s desk, putting a program he wanted onto his computer. The longer she sat waiting for it to download the angrier she got, thinking about Jansen and Banks. How could they do this to her? And why did she even care?
“Damn fools. If this is how they want to play, then so be it. They didn’t even call to tell me they were okay,” Star muttered. She thought she was alone, but the door creaked, alerting her that someone was standing there.
Star looked up as Lilly walked inside and said, “You mad at the bear and the wizard?”
Her eyes widened as she looked back down at Larken’s computer. “No. Why do you say that?”
“I thought we were friends, Star,” Lilly said.
Why couldn’t she have kept her big fat mouth shut? Now she had to tell Lilly why she was so mad.
“They could have called and at least said that they were okay. I thought they were my friends too,” Star complained.
“Really? Friends? I always thought you couldn’t stand Jansen and Banks. All you do is argue with them, and Ash said you punched Banks in the nose when he tried to show you how to hit properly so you wouldn’t break your hands,” Lilly commented.
“I mean, they’re always bossing me around, but I don’t hate them.” Star jumped up and started pacing in front of Lilly. “I thought we were all friends. I guess you’re right. Maybe I don’t know how to be friends with people. I guess I need to…”
“Stop it, Star. You’re a good person, and you would give the shirt off your back to any of us. They should have called you and at least said they were okay. I agree with you, but what I was trying to say is that maybe if you cut them some slack, they’d do the same for you.”
All Star heard was that maybe she should cut them some slack. She’d been her usual bitchy self and Lilly was calling her out. “I’m sorry if I was that way to you,” Star said, sitting back down at the computer. “I’ve got to finish this before your brother gets back.” Ending this conversation was all she could handle right now.
“Sure. I’ve got lots to keep me busy. The dance is tomorrow and I’ve got a lot to finish. You’re coming to the dance, right?” Lilly got up.
“Not real sure. I think you’ll have your hands full with the people coming in looking for their mates. I’ll try to drop by.” Star tried to smile, but it was no use. She’d just been told that she was acting like a bitch. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it hadn’t come from Lilly, the one person who she thought really liked her, but if Lilly thought that then everyone must think it, and just put up with her because of River being her sister.
“I better see you there! I’ll need my friends close by in case something happens like bears getting into a fight or cats doing cartwheels on the dance floor.” Star tried to smile at Lilly’s joking but her feelings had taken a big fat nosedive to the bottom of the ocean and she didn’t know how to handle it.
Lilly came around the desk and stunned her. “Remember, if your friends can be honest with you then you know that they’re your true friends. I love you, Star Johnson. You’re a great woman, and I mean that.”
Star nodded and half hugged her back. All she could think of was how awful she’d been to everyone, especially Banks and Jansen. She didn’t deserve mates. They didn’t need someone like her. Maybe she was too damaged.
Lilly walked to the door and waved good-bye. Star sat and stared after her for a long time before she decided maybe she needed to take a break from her family and everyone here at the lodge. Maybe a little day trip was in order. She could leave before lunch and come back tomorrow night. Jansen and Banks wouldn’t care; they hadn’t notified her, so she didn’t owe them the same courtesy. She’d call River from the road and tell her that she needed a moment to figure out her future and she couldn’t do it there with everyone. Plus, she wanted to be alone. She sighed, letting her frustration come through for a moment.
****
Jansen sat down with his Ne-ma while Banks took his shower. They were leaving in a few minutes, and he needed some time alone with his grandmother.
“So tell me about your mate?” his Ne-ma asked.
“How did you know? I haven’t had a chance to tell you about her.” Jansen smiled back.
“I already knew. The moment you met her, I could feel it in here.” Ne-ma touc
hed her heart.
Jansen shook his head. “You always know when something’s going to happen. Do you know who the vampire is that’s in their dreams? I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to her, but she drives me crazy, Ne-ma.”
Jansen’s grandmother laughed aloud, then slapped her knee and said, “I knew your mate would be a handful. She needed to be strong-willed, or you, my dear, would get bored very quickly.” She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “Take care of her, I feel trouble brewing for all of them. They will face this vampire soon, but know that he is more powerful then all of you think.”
“Do you think he’s alive and will get the message?” Jansen asked, worried.
“I don’t know boy. I can only pray that he gets it. I feel you’ll need him to defeat this monster of a vampire. He has a lot of followers coming with him,” Ne-ma answered as she stared off in space.
“How many are we talking about?” Jansen narrowed his eyes, praying that she’d know. They were going to need help if his Ne-ma was right.
“I don’t know; all I know is that I see many of them. More than a hundred, but most are lying in wait until he calls them,” Ne-ma said. She started shaking as she continued to concentrate.
“Do you know when, Ne-ma?”
“No, son… No I don’t,” she answered with fear in her eyes. If his Ne-ma feared this vampire, then they didn’t have time to waste. They needed to get home. He needed to make sure he had Star under lock and key until they could get enough help to protect them.
Banks came out of the bedroom carrying his bag. He saw Jansen’s expression and immediately came to his side. “What’s wrong?”
Jansen shook his head. “Let’s get on the road. I’ll tell you in the car.” Jansen reached over and helped his grandmother up, then kissed her on the cheek.
“Ne-ma, please keep trying to get the message to your contact. I love you.” Jansen loved his grandmother and he knew without a doubt that she loved him.