Feudlings in Sight

by Knight, Wendy

  Later. You can love her later.

  They reached the field, and she sank gracefully onto the grass, shading her eyes to watch the group of boys. “Hunter! Hey.” Conner jogged over. “Never found Shane, huh?”

  Hunter shook his head.

  “I can text him if you want,” Charity said, her head already bent over her phone. Conner looked down, surprised. Apparently he’d missed the brilliant white hair or the glittering silver eyes when he’d come over. Hunter should have been prepared for the look that slid across Conner’s face — most guys got it the first time they looked at Charity, but it still felt like he’d been punched in the gut.

  “I’m Conner. Are you…” Conner trailed off, looking uncertainly at Hunter and then back to Charity.

  She raised her head, squinting into the sunlight to see Conner’s face. “I’m Charity. Shane’s cousin. Hunter’s trusty sidekick.” And then she smiled, that teasing, playful grin, and Conner didn’t stand a chance. Hunter didn’t need to be a seer to know that.

  The worst part about it all was that Charity had absolutely no idea what she did to boys when she smiled like that. So he couldn’t even get mad at her for it.

  Her phone buzzed and she looked down at it, breaking eye contact with Conner. Hunter’s new friend/mortal enemy sucked in a shaky breath and blinked at Hunter like he didn’t quite understand what had just happened. “Shane’s on his way,” Charity said, her fingers flying over the tiny keyboard on her light blue phone.

  “Goo—good.” Conner cleared his throat twice.

  Hunter growled, crossing his arms over his chest and rising to his full height, but Conner failed to notice how threatening Hunter was. “Are we gonna play or what?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, let’s play.” Conner turned but paused, glancing back over his shoulder. “Charity, are you going to stay?”

  Charity glanced up with a distracted smile. “Yep. Gotta make sure my two favorite boys don’t die.” She went back to her phone. “Nev and Livi are coming, too. You’ll have a whole sideline of support.”

  Conner grabbed the ball, throwing it easily to another guy on the field. The football flew back and forth among all the other players. Hunter joined in, still growling, but as the ball hit his hands, a semblance of peace smothered his anger. There was just something so right about holding a football.

  “But, Shane, I thought we were going to do homework together!” The shrill voice nearly split Hunter’s skull and he jerked toward it, missing the football completely. He swore as it thwacked him in the head. Shane had stopped by Charity on the sidelines, bending over to tie his shoes. Behind him was a roundish, blonde girl, green eyes glaring fiercely at Charity.

  Conner chuckled, picking up the football at Hunter’s feet. “Brittany’s got her claws into Shane. Good luck shaking her off. I’ve gone to school with her since kindergarten. She’s… interesting.” Still laughing, he jogged away, taking the football with him.

  Hunter frowned, watching to see what happened. It was like a train wreck — he couldn’t look away. Shane responded, but since he didn’t shriek like Brittany did, Hunter couldn’t hear his reply. “Who is this?” She motioned at Charity. Hunter clenched his teeth and stormed across the field toward them.

  But Charity just smiled. “I’m Charity. Shane’s cousin.”

  Brittany studied her, half-disgusted like she was studying a bug. Charity ignored her, leaning around her to wave at Nev and Livi, who stood across the field, searching for their new BFF. This made Hunter happy. She needed good friends who would protect her when he couldn’t. He turned the force of his glare back toward Brittany, smirking when she shrank away from him. Shane stood up, glanced at Brittany cowering behind him, and sighed, raising an eyebrow at Hunter. He’d gotten that look often enough to know exactly what Shane was thinking: Really Hunter? You haven’t even been properly introduced and you’re trying to scare her half-to-death? Hunter scowled back at him.

  “Hunter, incoming!” Conner yelled, and Hunter turned just in time to see the football flying across the field. Shane dodged in front of him, snatching the ball out of the air. Hunter roared as Shane took off, laughing. Touch-football? Yeah, I don’t think so. Hunter chased him down, tackled him to the ground, stole the football, and they started a nice, physical game before anyone even chose teams.

  That was how Hunter liked it.

  By the time the sun went down, he was hot, sweaty, and happier than he’d been since they arrived at this place. He offered Shane a hand up from where he lay, covered in grass stains and still half-buried under players. Conner clapped him on the back as he stopped next to them, dirt smudged along the whole right side of his face. “That was fun. You guys sure bring it.” He grinned, his eyes straying for the eight thousandth time toward Charity. Hunter growled again, low in his throat. He tried not to, really. It just happened. Shane gave him a warning look before he turned to Conner, catching and distracting his attention. “Who are those guys over there?” He nodded toward the higher, less muddy field.

  Conner’s glare followed where Shane pointed. “Seniors and juniors. They won’t let us play with them on the good field.”

  Hunter squinted, trying to count players. “Why not? They don’t look like they have enough for two teams.”

  Conner shrugged. “My brother plays with them. He says freshmen aren’t good enough to play with them.”

  Charity appeared like a ghost at Hunter’s side, laying a hand on his arm. “Don’t even think about it,” she said under her breath. He glanced at her briefly before glaring back at the seniors. With a resigned sigh, she dropped her hand and stepped back. “Alright, go. I’m going to my room.” Waving her hand lazily through the air, she muttered, “I have homework or something.”

  Nev strode up to them, dark eyes dancing. “And girl talk! It’s a tradition.” She grabbed Charity’s hand, dragging her back toward the sidelines where Livi waited. Charity paused, catching Hunter’s eye and giving him a pointed look. “It will end well,” she said. With a smile, she turned away, letting Nev and Livi lead her down the path to the dorms.

  “Kinda handy having a seer for my favorite cousin,” Shane said quietly next to Hunter’s ear. When Hunter looked at him, he grinned. “Shall we go? They’re breaking up. If we don’t hurry they’ll be gone before we get there.”

  Hunter stalked across the field, looking forward to the coming argument. Conner jogged to catch up. “Where are we going?”

  When Hunter didn’t answer, Shane did it for him. “Hunter’s going to make them let us play.”

  Conner’s pale green eyes widened and he brushed his sandy hair out of his face, a habit Hunter had realized was a nervous tic of some sort. He hesitated for a few steps and Hunter thought he’d stay behind. But he squared his shoulders and hurried to catch up.

  Hunter paused on the sidelines, watching the boys attempt to play football without nearly enough people. “Looks like you’re short a full team,” he said when a few of the closest boys noticed him.

  “We could use some more.” A boy not much taller than Shane wandered over, watching Hunter curiously. “You a junior?”

  “Freshman.” Hunter crossed his arms over his chest and suppressed a grin as the kid did a double take. He got that a lot.

  “Sorry,” the boy said, and he did sound genuinely sorry. “We don’t let freshmen play.”

  Hunter stared him down for several seconds. Shane snickered beside him until the other boys started to circle like wolves. Then he turned on the charm Hunter had been waiting for. “I have an idea.” Shane stepped between them, breaking eye contact, holding his hands up in a truce. “What if we have a little… competition?” His tone was friendly, and only Hunter knew him well enough to know that the sparkle in his eye was danger, not humor.

  The boy tipped his head to the side so he could see around Shane. Meeting Hunter’s eyes, he said, “What kind of competition?”

  “Our freshmen and sophomore team against you guys,” Shane said, not waiting for Hunter
to answer. The older boys laughed, and Shane grinned easily. “If you win, we’ll leave with our tails between our legs. If we win, we all play together on the good field.”

  The boy pushed his long dark hair out of his eyes, studying Hunter, completely ignoring Shane. “What position do you play?”

  Hunter raised an eyebrow, grinning. “I play them all, brother.”

  The boy’s lip quirked up in half a smile, his eyes considering. “Okay.” He turned to Shane slowly. “You’re on. Saturday morning.”

  Shane stuck his hand out. “See you then.”

  ****

  Saturday morning was warm and bright. Hunter led the way across the field, stretching his shoulders. The flames in his blood roiled anxiously at the prospect of a fight. Or, a game, whichever it turned out to be.

  Behind him, he could feel the nerves of his team. Apparently, no one had ever thought to challenge the seniors before. Hunter grinned wickedly.

  He was the first.

  “By the way, I’m Jack.” The boy with the long dark hair spoke up.

  “Hunter.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Jack grinned. “This is gonna be mighty embarrassing for you guys,” he said. Hunter stared at him, unwielding, until Jack’s grin faded from his pale face and he dropped back, stooping to pick up the ball. Even taller and older, he seemed to sense that Hunter was dangerous, although he’d never know how dangerous.

  Clearing his throat, Jack said, “So let’s do this.” With a nod, he jogged over to his team.

  Hunter turned to his own huddle. His team stood silently, watching the older boys with what could only be called fear. “Hey. This is supposed to be fun,” Shane said, metallic eyes sparkling with the same dangerous glint Hunter could feel roiling through his blood.

  “This isn’t going to be touch football, is it?” a boy Hunter remembered as Blair crossed his arms and glared from the seniors and then back to their huddle.

  “I think not,” Conner said quietly.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll be fine. And they’ll be sorry they didn’t just let us play the first time.” Hunter nodded, in complete agreement with himself. “Let’s set up positions. It’s just a suggestion, but I think Shane should be our runner.”

  Shane grinned, and Hunter gave him a pointed look. Don’t go too fast, superstar, or you’ll give us away. Shane’s smile died and he nodded, reading Hunter’s mind as only he could. “Blair, Conner, David, how do you feel about being receivers?”

  Hunter wasn’t sure how, but he ended up quarterback. They tossed the coin, and the seniors took their places.

  Blair had been right. It wasn’t even close to touch football. It was one of the most physical games Hunter had ever played. He could tell Shane was more worried about protecting the players on their team than the actual game, but there were only two of them with their super-sorcerer skills. They couldn’t be everywhere, no matter how hard they tried.

  Hunter shook the thought out of his head, trying to focus. Down the field, Shane was surrounded by seniors taller and bigger than him. Hunter couldn’t get to him, so he looked for Blair. The seniors were smart though, and Blair was covered, too. Luckily, that left the rest of the field wide open.

  “Come on, Hunter!”

  The second he heard her voice, he lost all hope of any concentration. His head whipped toward the sidelines, where Charity watched with Nev and Livi, eating popcorn, sitting on a blanket like they were at a movie, not a life-or-death struggle for the good field.

  “Look out!” Charity screeched, and he could just see the faint glow in her eyes. He didn’t know what he was watching out for, but he jumped to the side as a senior dove at him. The boy sailed through the air and missed him completely. He swore and dragged his gaze away from Charity, throwing hard to David, who was clear down field.

  Too late, Charity screamed. “No!”

  Hunter didn’t know what she could see, but he took off after the ball, running as hard as he dared. Shane, too, broke free from the crowd around him and went after David. Unfortunately, so did half the seniors’ team. David looked away from the ball, saw the horde of boys coming at him. Move, David, forget the ball! We don’t need to win that bad! Hunter screamed in his head, but he saw David’s jaw tighten. He had to know what was going to happen, but he jumped for the ball anyway, his long arms reaching, his fingers tightening around it just as he got hit first. He bent sideways and crashed to the ground, tucking the ball tight to his chest. Instantly, he was buried under seniors.

  Hunter jerked the top two off of him while Shane grabbed the other guy. “What the— We’re playing touch football, you idiots!” Shane yelled, shoving them away. There was going to be a fight, and Hunter knew he was supposed to be Shane’s Guard, but he was more worried about David, still lying on the ground.

  “You okay?” He knelt next to him, glancing briefly at Shane, who still yelled angrily. The rest of their teams gathered around.

  “Yeah, just… just winded I think.” David sat up, putting a hand to his head as his eyes refused to focus. His other hand went to his ribs and he gasped.

  “His ribs are broken,” Charity said quietly next to Hunter. He hadn’t heard or seen her approach.

  “Get him to the school nurse. Ms. Neemer will know what to do,” Conner said, magically appearing next to Charity.

  Hunter looked at Shane, waiting until his best friend felt the weight of his stare. “Shane. Help me take him to the nurse.” He spoke slowly, hoping Shane would get his meaning.

  Shane did.

  “We got this, guys. Why don’t we call this halftime?” Shane said abruptly, cutting into his own sentence about how stupid the seniors were.

  Between Shane and Hunter, they got David to his feet and mostly carried him off the field. Charity followed without a word. They were almost inside when David passed out. “Shane, heal him,” Charity whispered, glancing around to see who watched them. Luckily, it was Saturday and the school was empty. Most of the students were off for the day, doing whatever students did if they weren’t playing a high stakes game of football.

  Shane’s eyes widened and he looked from Charity to Hunter. “He’s a Normal.”

  “So?” Charity asked.

  “Hurry up, man. Before he wakes up. That’ll make things a lot harder to explain,” Hunter said as he took on more of David’s weight so Shane could slide out from under his arm.

  “Charity, keep watch.”

  Charity’s eyes started to glow. “That works too.” Hunter smiled. Shane’s hands lit up, blue flames licking his fingertips. Hunter could feel the heat as Shane laid his hands against David’s ribs, the sparks leaping from his fingers to David, seeping into the skin.

  David’s eyes fluttered open and Shane jerked his hands away. “How ya feelin?” Hunter asked mildly. Charity’s eyes snapped open.

  “I… better.” David frowned. “I swear, it hurt a lot but now…”

  “Probably just knocked the wind out of you. We should still get you to the nurse,” Shane said, stuffing his hands in his back pockets.

  David dropped his arm from around Hunter’s shoulder, feeling his ribs as they walked down the silent hall. “So weird.”

  They got David settled with Ms. Neemer, a terrifying woman with grey hair and spectacles who lectured them on the stupidity of playing football without the proper gear. Then she shooed them away.

  “Halftime’s over, guys. Ready to play?” Hunter asked as they came back to the field.

  Charity grabbed his arm, pulling him back. Shane, too, paused beside her, bending his head closer to her. “They’re going to get hurt. You two have to protect them. Got it?”

  Hunter glanced at Shane. “Got it.”

  “Yep.”

  Jack met them at their makeshift fifty yard line. “Is he gonna be okay?”

  “Yeah. I think so,” Shane answered. “But you guys are way too rough. You don’t see us tackling any of you three or four people deep.”

  “I know. We’ll chill.” Jack nodded.
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  “Good.” Shane grinned broadly, nodding toward the goal line. “That was a touchdown, by the way.”

  Hunter gathered his boys. “Score’s tied, but physically we’re getting beat up. Are we gonna let them do that to us?”

  “No,” Blair snarled.

  “That’s what I thought. Let’s teach them what happens when they mess with one of our own.” He could see the steely determination in his team’s eyes.

  If the game had been rough before, it was a whole new level of dangerous now. David’s injury seemed to ignite his team, and Hunter started to wonder if he and Shane were really the only ones with flames running through their blood.

  They were smaller, slower, less experienced maybe, but his boys were running the seniors into the ground. And he and Shane? They were running themselves into the ground trying to read Charity’s signals before each play, figuring out who to block and who to protect according to her visions. Hunter wasn’t sure he was going to make it to the end of the game.

  “Last play, boys. This is it!” Jack yelled over his shoulder from their huddle.

  The freshman team was ahead by three points, for which Hunter was immensely grateful. He wasn’t sure he had it in him to rally the troops for a winning play.

  “We just have to not let them score and we’re golden,” Hunter said. His hands were shaking from exhaustion. All he wanted was a shower and bed. He never thought he’d want a football game to end, but here he was, praying for it to be over. His team felt the same, he could tell. All of them, completely spent.

  Shane stood up, watching the other huddle. “I got this.” He paused, and turned to Hunter. “If you got my back.”

  Hunter felt his flames roil to life. “Always, brotha.”

  They broke. The other team hiked the ball, and Hunter raced downfield, expecting Shane to go after the quarterback. He didn’t. Instead, he watched Charity. “Ah.” He nodded. “Nice plan.”

  Hunter watched her, too. She motioned with her head, a discreet little nod toward the guy at the far end, and Shane took off, running as hard as he dared. The quarterback threw the ball and it sailed through the sky, a perfect spiral. “Hunter, move it!” Charity yelled.