by Willa Alders
I went back into Sam’s’. When I did, I threw a pillow at him. Avery sat there shaking his head.
“117 years old and you still haven’t lost it! That’s pathetic even after all the practice you’ve had.” Avery laughed at me. I sat down but not before I blew a dish up over his head.
“Well I would if you all wouldn’t keep interrupting.” I yelled as I sent a beer bottle, flying smashing it over his head. He jumped up and came over after me. I stood up as Sam grabbed some popcorn.
“Let’s go.” Avery yelled and he punched me in the face.
His fist landed like steel causing me to see white, but when I did I froze him, and unfroze his head busting anything I could over him. He stayed frozen for a bit but when he unfroze I was quick enough to move. Next thing I knew he had thrown me out the window, as it shattered, I hit the water. My ears were ringing. I jumped out of the water and swooped back inside.
I was done playing, I took everything I had and started throwing everything I could find in my brain at him. It was not doing much to him. Before we could have a chance to really hurt each other Caleb and Carmina appeared out of dust. Carmina must have sensed us fighting. She came in and got Avery off top of me, as Caleb grabbed onto me holding me back. She had popped Avery in the back of the head.
“There are bears on the loose and you all are fighting each other are you stupid?” She bellowed.
“Ask her she started it.” Avery said sitting down.
“Shush. You two shut up and sit down.” Carmina pointed at me. I did as I was told. She was mad, and you didn’t test her when she was mad. “Really, you’re supposed to help her and you you’re supposed to learn. Neither one of you listen. When you get killed I guess then.” She yelled and the house shook. Sam went to get up but she turned on him too.
“Sit. You shouldn’t let them.” She boomed. Sam did. “I can’t do much to you Avery except strip you of your abilities for a week.” She yelled at him, his head just kind of slumped down.
He hated to disappoint Carmina and he hated losing his abilities even if it was for just a brief period of time. Carmina pulled out a bottle out of her pocket. I had seen it before. The bottle was used to strip anyone like us of our abilities; it would contain them for a certain amount of time. Typically this was either done as a punishment in a family or as a protection plan. Carmina only did it if she really had to and only if she was really really upset. This time Avery and I both crossed the line.
“Blow.” She said softly as she handed the bottle to him. You could hear it in her voice this wasn’t something she liked to do.
The bottle held a chant that was initiated by having someone blow into it. Once the breath of air would hit the rim from the blow a shadow from a chant would arise from inside the bottle pulling out one’s ability. It would drag the ability back into the bottle trapping it, and the ability would fill up as dust or sand depending on which ability it was. Then once the bottle was sealed the ability was trapped. The only way for the enchanted to get it back was the one who took the ability away was to cast a chant over the sand in the bottle then blow it back on the enchanted person who they stripped it from.
“Car you can’t do this. I need them.” Avery pleaded with her.
“Don’t Car me, Avery. You know the consequences for the actions. Now blow.” She yelled.
“Yes ma’am.” He grumbled.
Avery took the bottle and unscrewed the cap. He blew into the bottle and I watched as the shadow came up pulling his ability. It filled the bottle up with sand just like I had read about. Afterwards Carmina took the bottle and sealed it and tossed it to Caleb. It was official Avery was no longer super strong; he was only as strong as a normal human.
“Whatever.” He snorted. When he said that Carmina did something in her brain because he hit the floor and stood up when he got up he fixed his pants and rubbed his arm and was rubbing his body. His eyes were swollen. I just sat there I had never seen her do that. She turned toward me, and I was frozen I couldn’t move.
“You missy, really do you have any idea how powerful you are? You could’ve killed him or yourself. Really?” She yelled and I just sat there dumbfounded in disbelief that Carmina was this mad over a stupid fight that Avery and I have every now and then.
“Sorry Car.” I mumbled not knowing else what to do. I had never been in trouble with them before, Avery had but not me I typically tried to stay out of trouble, not to mention I didn’t want her to do what she did to Avery to me.
“I know you are. But luckily for you unlike Avery I’m not taking your abilities away like I did his. You’re training so you get to keep them, but you are not off the hook. I’ll do one better. Your keys to your Ducati and your cars are gone. You’ll get them back in a week.” She yelled at me. “Plus you will have a chaperone when you see Archer for this week—Avery.” She smiled a deviant little smile.
Great that was a mood killer. I went to say something. She stopped me by waving her finger and then the next thing I knew she had me down on the ground, and I couldn’t do anything. I was paralyzed. When she stopped they both left. I never had Carmina lay down the law like that. I finally stood up after I made sure she was gone.
“What is that?” I asked Avery puzzled. He ignored me
He grabbed a beer popped it open and started drinking it. He had tossed one to Sam. But he didn’t answer me he was ignoring me. I sat down at by Sam.
“She mind paralyzed you kind of. It’s where they send a pain through your body to control you. Yours obviously was mild, yours wasn’t nothing like Avery’s’ though.” Sam said taking a sip of his beer.
“Avery I’m sorry.” I mumbled at him. He wasn’t paying attention.
“If she did that to you kid what she just did to him. You would be dead.” Sam just shrugged, and now I knew why Avery hated being at home when he was getting yelled at. I just sat there for a bit quiet.-
“Let’s get one thing clear I’m not watching you and you’re not coming with me. We’ll leave together, and split up. You can use one of my cars for a week.” Avery said with a blank expression but I could tell there was something lingering in his voice. I just couldn’t put my finger on what exactly that was.
“Thanks, I guess.” I paused. “Sorry. By the way I saw the couple again” I said to him as he raised his eyebrows. “I was kissing Archer this time again.” I said looking at him as cringed.
“No problem. Next time don’t bust bottles over my head, and she won’t come. Got it?” he paused as I nodded. “Did you do what the Kintana asked?” He asked not looking.
“I tried.” I said looking at him. “It ended too quickly.” I shrugged.
“Oh, and next time Ara please spare me every detail. He grimaced.
I grabbed a blanket covering up as I rested my head on Sam as we watched horror flicks the rest of the night, in between texts with Archer.
CHAPTER 7 ARCHER
We were sitting on the edge of the bluffs I was sitting there, hoping my aura still shown as pink as hers did. I knew she had casted a chant on me and I didn’t care. I wanted her to see my aura, because when I did tell her it would make it easier, she would know the whole time I was telling the truth. She looked gorgeous sitting there. I sat there watching her as the moon bounced off her blonde hair.
I broke the silence: “Now I see why you disappear at parties.” I smiled at her watching her laugh answering me as she said yea you know. Then she didn’t say anything else. She just sat there for a few moments dangling her feet over the edge, and tossing a few pebbles over the edge. I finally asked her what had been bugging me.
“Why’d you say no? At the restaurant when you were asked if we were a couple?” I said as she turned and looked at me.
“Didn’t think we were you never really said.” She shrugged tossing another pebble.
Since I knew she was looking into my auras, and my mom was a gypsy who loved auras, I was able to relate my mom and that into this conversation to cover up that I knew she was lookin
g at mine.
“Well by the way you’re aura reads; I’d say you would like us to be. You’re pink.” I smiled and continued on with my story so it reassured her I knew nothing after she asked:
“Uhm, ok. What does that mean?”
“Well not entirely sure of all them but my mother was a gypsy and aura freak. She was definitely better at it but she said pink meant that someone was sensitive, loving, and wanting a relationship. She taught me how to tap into it and see just basic colors. I only see one at a time. If you have multiple colors at once I only see the most dominant one. Like yours radiating pink right now it’s pretty easy to see that.” I laughed at her. She blushed when she smiled.
“Where’s your mom?” She asked, and my heart sank, because I knew I would have to explain the story but only briefly. I wouldn’t tell her all the details.
“She’s dead, well she got killed. Now I live with my sister. She’s not exactly the nicest, but one year left, I can handle it. My mom would have liked you.” I smiled looking at her but I cringed thinking I couldn’t tell her who I was, or who my sister was. I knew she could tell my smile was a sad one I didn’t like bringing up my sister, or my mom.
“Yea, I take it long hair is the gypsy in you.” She smiled touching my curls as I pulled it back into a loose ponytail.
“Yea, or something like that. So is that what you want?” I asked her looking over the water. “To be with me?”
“I shouldn’t but yea I would like that a lot. We’re only young once.” She said trying not to sound excited but she was because her Aura radiated brighter when she answered.
“I’d like that.” I smiled leaning in kissing her softly and deeply.
Before I could get too far, I saw the couple she saw. I knew who they were, but I couldn’t say anything yet, and I did not know what to say. I watched with them kissing then they stood up. Before we saw anything else I heard a noise and I pulled away gently. I didn’t answer, but she heard Avery and Sam coming up the hill. She smiled at me.
“You can swim right?” she asked I nodded. “Come on jump.” She smiled and I smiled back grabbing her hand and we jumped into the water off the cliff.
When we hit the water was freezing but I blocked the cold out and rushed my body to overfill with heat as we swam as quick as we could to get to the edge of the water we ran out practically I turned on the cold factor to make it look like I was just as cold as she was, even though I wasn’t. She thought I was human and since I couldn’t tell her yet I had to make her still believe that I was. We didn’t really save much time because Avery and Sam were right behind us.
Sam came up and gave me a shitty grin after saying “What the….” Sam smiled at me. “You have to get out of them clothes. Dude I don’t have the same style but I got a hoodie and basketball shorts. You can wear. Ara you know where I keep your stuff, at.” Sam smiled, and I just nodded and said thanks.
We walked into the guest room where we had begun making out the other night and I went into the guest bathroom to change out of my clothes and dry my hair off. I hung the wet clothes up on the shower. I wrapped the towel around me and I realized I left the clothes out on the bed great. I walked out in my towel hoping she wouldn’t look too closely and see the bruises and scars. But who am I kidding they were fresh and big enough that you would see them, and that was nothing compared to what they were. So I focused on her, she looked cute even though the pants she had on were five sizes too big but she made them work. She looked cute as could be no matter what she was in but it was nice to see her in pajamas. I caught her eyeballing me from the corner as I was her so I smiled and said:
“Ok. You can at my body if you want to because it’s yours now.” I smiled at her as I dropped the towel and was sliding on the pants. She walked up to me and pointed.
“What’d you do?” She asked as I turned red a bit, and played it off as a typical teen wanting her to look at more than the bruises.
“Oh, that’s not what I was hoping you would look at. I told you earlier, my sister was mean and so is her boyfriend. I mean I’m strong but I won’t hit a girl. So she pretty much can do whatever. I’ve been in trouble so I can’t report it because she will flip it, and if she flips it, well put it this way I’m gone. So I live with it.” I shrugged shaking my hair and grimacing as she touched the back of my leg.
“I’m sorry.” She said genuinely concerned, and then pointed to the scar on my chest. “She do that too?”
“Yep, but it’s ok beautiful.” I said kissing her.
I was tired of her asking about Kilyn so I changed the subject. I cupped my hand in her cheek and sat on the bed kissing her, and lowering her to laying position. I leaned over top of her kissing her gently and slowly lowering myself down on top of her. I cupped my hand underneath her tank top on her breast, they were nice and warm to the touch. Everything was perfect right here with her, and there was no way I could ever hurt her. We were getting lost in each other but before we could get really far Sam came in and ruined it once again. That guy must have loved ruining our fun. I groaned at him Avery was shortly after.
“Bro nice! Ara really him and not with me?” Sam smiled but Avery frowned at me. He really didn’t like me.
Sam said something to me. “Dude your sister keeps calling. She wants you home now.” He said to him. “She’s pissed.”
“Ok, I’ll head out.” I said as they left I started kissing Aralynn again. She put her hands on my chest and pushed me away.
“Archer you better go. I don’t want her to hurt you again at least not because of me.” She finished saying with pleading eyes which made it hard not to go.
“I wouldn’t mind it would be worth it.” I smiled a quick deviant smile, and then kissed her again, as we headed outside. I hopped into the car and started it up. “See you tomorrow. I’ll get out.” I smiled as I headed out.
I drove the winding curves till I get home checking my voicemails, there was none, which was good, but the whole time I was punching and slapping the steering wheel because I was pissed that she had called. I couldn’t do anything about it now.
I knew I would regret not asking her to be mine in front of Kilyn, but that was just something no matter how hard I tried I just could not do. I couldn’t ask her in front of some who was trying to kill me. This was something special I wanted it to be more private for many reasons than just that. Simply because in case she would have said no and turned me down, I could have tried a different approach, than without Kilyn knowing she did. Thank god she hadn’t said that, thank god she had said yes, and didn’t turn me down. It made for a lot less pain and a lot less thinking of another approach.
She had said yes I thought to myself driving home. I kept replaying in my mind that she agreed to be mine, despite having to bring up the sadness of my mom being gone and despite the fact that I was also heading home to my personal hell. She had said yes and I was happy. Tonight was one of the best nights I’d had in a while, probably one of the best I've ever had. No matter what happened next I was happy, I saw a glimpse of heaven with Aralynn tonight, and no matter how hard Kilyn may try she could not take that away from me. She could not take away the way I felt with Aralynn and what I got when I was with Aralynn. She could not take away the hope I felt when I was around Aralynn, or how she made me feel. All of those feelings would be mine, now Aralynn was mine too. That was all worth it, and Kilyn couldn’t destroy it I thought.
I pulled into the driveway, shut off the car and locked it and headed in the house. I was going to try to sneak in. I failed because no sooner than I got inside and opened up a bottle of water to drink Carter got to me. Carter threw me against the wall in the kitchen. It didn’t rock me because I had expected something like that to happen. One thing nice is if I expect something bad I can brace my body, it takes a lot out of me but I can do it making what was about to come not hurt so bad. I smiled as I stood up welcoming him for whatever he had planned as I wiped off my shirt.
He flickered back a smile showing
his teeth, and I knew at some time he had plans to bite me. He intended to either kill me or severely hurt me. Typically I didn’t do anything but I was going to try, I was tired of not standing up; even though I knew there was no way I would win. This time I was going to try. This time I had at least had a reason it was ARALYNN. I was stronger than him but not Kilyn in aspects like paralyzing. I knew when she heard us going at it she would come in and finish it. Regardless, I had to try and prove a point, and if I couldn’t win. I was not going to make it easy for him.
I charged at him and slammed his entire body against the island in the kitchen. That was my ability I could run fast and stampede people or things into anything I wanted, moving them with strength. Another one was the same as Aralynn’s I could blow stuff up. I could do that, read minds, and change my body temperature whenever I wanted which wasn’t useless. I could also float which is kind of a form of flying, but it was not all the same though, I could not use each of them all at once. I could use the strength to pin him, blow things up over him, maybe all that would help. Even though I couldn’t read Kilyn’s mind I could read Carters, so that ability helped when he was fighting me like this. I could see his next move before he did it.
Carter may have been mean and stronger than me but he was not very good at blocking thoughts out covering them so no one else could hear them. I looked at my hand and whisked a book from a shelf hitting him with it. I smiled and threw a chair at him, and then I saw in his mind he was going to hit me and throw me out the window. He stepped closer and I stood there waiting, but he never did. Instead he took a chair which puzzled me more and wacked me straight in the head twice. It instantly dropped me to the floor. I was seeing some spots, and before I could get up Kilyn had come over.
“Now now boys.” She said in a tisk tisk manner.
Carter being the snake he was hissed “He started it Kilyn, he hit me first.”
I attempted to mumble out “No Kilyn.” But only got the “No, Ki” out.