The Wanderers Beginning: The Wanderers, Reborn, & Unforgiven

by Jessica Miller

  “Thank you,” I smiled.

  She stood up and turned to speak to both Roman and I. “How is the spell coming along?”

  “We were just going over the final details,” Roman said with his most charming smile.

  “And what have you come up with so far?” Ms. Kraft asked curiously.

  “It’s a surprise,” he said. I just smiled and went along with whatever he was saying. You could tell Ms. Kraft wasn’t exactly buying his bullshit, but she left us go.

  Once she made her way to the front, I turned to Roman and asked, “Do you even have a plan or you just making stuff up as you go?”

  “What spell did she do for you?” he asked, indicating he had overheard the private conversation I had with Ms. Kraft.

  “Why do you always avoid my questions?”

  “Why do you always try to avoid mine?” he countered.

  “Because the questions you ask are none of your business,” I said with a scowl. Ms. Kraft excused the class, allowing me a small reprieve from Roman.

  “Another time then,” Roman said, standing up to leave.

  “Wait, what about our project?”

  “Meet me in the library after dinner,” he said, walking out with the project list still in his backpack. The last thing I wanted to do was spend more time with Roman, but we needed to get this project done.

  I didn’t see Roman at dinner and wondered if we were still on to work on our project. Not wanting to take any chances, I went to the library, deciding that if he didn’t show I’d do my own project.

  Roman was stretched out at a table in the back eating a sandwich. “You know, you’re not supposed to eat in here. You’ll get in trouble,” I said as the Liberian came over and handed Roman a book, walking away without another word. “Now how come you didn’t get reamed out for that?” I asked, peeved at the fact that she practically ripped me a new one for eating an apple, but didn’t blink an eye at Roman.

  “What can I say, maybe it’s my charming personality?” he smirked.

  “I highly doubt that,” I frowned, taking a seat. I was ready to get this over with.

  “So what’s with the blue streak? You tryin’ to start a new trend?” he asked, washing his sandwich down with a coke.

  “How about we lay off the personal questions and just work on the project,” I said in an effort to try and keep things easy.

  “How about if I answer one of your questions? Will that make you feel better?”

  “What would make me feel better is if we just worked on this project.” I opened up my bag and pulled out my notebook.

  Roman leaned forward in his chair, his dark, piercing blue eyes engaging mine. “Afraid I’m going to find out your deep, dark secrets?”

  I met his gaze, moving closer. “If I were you I’d be more worried about me finding out yours,” I warned.

  He sat back with a slight disturbed look on his face. “I don’t have any secrets,” he said.

  “Everyone has secrets,” I said, knowing all too well. I would almost consider myself an expert on the category.

  “Oh, yeah? And you think I’m going to give them up to you?” he said, resuming his normal cocky attitude.

  I looked him dead in the eye, his smile breaking. “You don’t have to tell me. There are other ways I can find out,” I smirked, loving the feeling of making him squirm.

  “What are you, like, a mind reader or something?” He joked nervously. When I didn’t laugh back, Roman’s smile fell. I could tell by the expression on his face he just answered his own question. “You are…that’s why you freaked out the other day.” I didn’t confirm nor deny his suspicion. “Wait, you can’t read my mind now can you?” he asked, looking uncomfortable. My guess would be that he was thinking impure thoughts again. He looked like his mom just caught him with a dirty magazine. I got an odd kind of excitement watching him out of his comfort zone.

  I thought about seeing how long I could pretend I could read his mind before he realized I couldn’t. But then I looked into his eyes and my stomach dropped. Those damn eyes were my weakness. “No, I can’t,” I said. “The spell Ms. Kraft did was to bind my power until I can figure out how to control it.”

  Roman just nodded and pushed over the list of spells we could choose from for our project. I guess he decided he didn’t want to know any more about me. “I think we should do this one,” he said, pointing to the one that read create a flame.

  “You’re kidding, right? Create a flame as in, like, light a match or rub two sticks together?”

  “We’re vampires not cavemen,” he said, flashing his cocky smile.

  “That’s to be debated,” I mumbled.

  “What?” he asked, acting like he didn’t hear me.

  “Nothing…so care to elaborate on the whole making fire thing?”

  The corner of his lip twitched, making his eyes sparkle. He pushed one of the books over to me. “You create a spell to use fire unlike witches who can just conjure it.”

  “Witches can conjure fire?” I asked, feeling perplexed.

  “Some of the most powerful witches can conjure anything, but fire or anything from the elements is the easiest.”

  “Figures you’d pick something easy,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  “Actually, this is one of the harder spells.”

  “You just said –”

  He shook his head. “I said conjuring the elements is easy for witches. We have to use spells and still don’t come close to what they can do,” he clarified.

  “When you say the elements, you mean?”

  “Earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. Everything we use in our spells comes from the help of these elements. Earth is a big one. We draw a lot of energy from the earth which is why it is so important that we give some back.”

  I nodded, understanding. Roman was the first person besides Riley who didn’t treat me like some weirdo who didn’t know anything about this stuff. Most of the students here knew about their heritage as I knew basically nothing. I appreciated him not looking down on me for not understanding something that seemed like a simple known fact. “Okay, so where do we start?” I asked, getting back to the project.

  He gave me a half smile and opened up the book the Liberian gave him. “In here it explains how witches can conjure the element and other ways of how to come up with a spell to do it.” His arm gently brushed mine, giving me a weird shock. I pulled my arm away quickly and from Roman’s expression I’d say he felt it too. “Why don’t you look through this book and I’ll search this one,” he said, flipping through the pages and refusing to look at me.

  We sat silently researching the books for an hour before I decided I had enough of the awkwardness. “You never told me what your power is,” I said, breaking the silence.

  “That’s because you never asked.”

  I fought the urge to roll my eyes. “Well, I’m asking now.”

  “If I answer than you have to answer one of my questions.”

  “Fine,” I sighed, knowing no way around it.

  He leaned back in his chair and waited a moment before he answered. “I can generate power.” I just looked at him, waiting for the punch line. “Maybe if I show you,” he said, standing up and looking around the area. He walked over to the wall and took down the clock that was hanging there. Then he came back over to the table and placed his hand on the side of the clock. The hands spun around as if he was changing the time.

  “Am I supposed to be impressed?” I asked unenthusiastically.

  “Fine, you want something bigger?” he said, walking back over to the wall. “You better hold onto your knickers.” He smiled, placed his hand on the wall, and closed his eyes. I felt the floor shake and heard a crackling noise, and then the lights went out. “Impressed?” he asked.

  “I’ll be more impressed if you can turn the lights back on,” I said a little panicked.

  “What’s the matter, afraid of the dark?” he teased.

  “Okay, you had your fun. You can tu
rn the lights back on now.” He was right, I was afraid of the dark, but I wasn’t going to admit that to him. I heard the crackling noise again and then the lights flickered and came back to life. Roman saw the petrified look on my face and came right over to the table and tried to peel my fingers off the back of the chair. I was gripping it so tight my fingers were turning white. “I’m sorry. If I really knew you were afraid of the dark I wouldn’t have done that. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” I nodded, rubbing my hands. When I looked back up at him he was wearing an unreadable expression. “What, no witty insults about me being afraid of the dark?” I quipped.

  “It’s not funny,” he said sincerely. “I can warm your hands for you? It might make them feel better.” He didn’t even give me a chance to answer him. He just took my hands and held them. I felt a slight tingling sensation then warmth. It was soothing and it felt nice. I looked up into his dark blue eyes and I thought I saw something familiar. I couldn’t turn my eyes away. I felt trapped in his mesmerizing stare. Suddenly my hands got hot, very hot. I ripped them away from him. “Sorry, I didn’t –”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “Maybe we should just get back to the assignment.”

  “What made you so afraid of the dark?” he asked softly.

  “I had too many close encounters with things that go bump in the night,” I replied honestly.

  “Understandable. What’s with the blue streak?”

  I dropped my pencil. “So we’re back to the fifty questions now?” I asked, not surprised with the sudden change of subject. I think for once he was actually trying to be nice.

  “Hey, I said you can ask me a question and I get to ask you one.”

  “Yes, but that was two questions. It’s my turn to ask you one.”

  “Fine, go ahead,” he said, leaning back in his chair.

  “What’s with the accent?”

  “I’m Irish,” he said proudly.

  “Is it real or just a ploy to get girls?”

  “Nope. You only get one. Now it’s my turn.”

  “Fine. No, my blue streak is not a fashion trend. It was a side effect from my powers.”

  “That’s kind of cool. Can I touch it?”

  I crinkled my brow at him. “Um…sure?”

  He carefully reached up and touched the blue in my hair. He had an awe expression on his face. I thought it would be funny to scare him so I jumped and said boo. He almost fell back out of his seat. I was laughing so hard my eyes started to water. “Ha-ha,” he said his ego hurt. “I guess I deserve that for earlier.”

  His expression shifted. “What?” I asked, wondering if I had something on my face.

  “You have a nice laugh.”

  “Thanks,” I said blushing. “Okay, so, accent real or fake?” I asked, trying to distract myself and keep the conversation from turning awkward.

  “Real, I was born in Ireland and moved here when I was twelve. Don’t believe me? I can prove it to you.”

  “And how are you going to do that?” I asked, not in the mood for him to do another demonstration.

  “You could bite me,” he said, his voice shaky.

  “What?” I said caught off guard.

  “When you bite another –”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know all that,” I said, shocked that he would even suggest that.

  “Have you ever bitten someone?”

  “No,” I snapped, turning back to my books.

  “Ever have someone bite you?” he asked in a hushed voice, moving closer to me. I felt that electric pulse again and moved away from him. What kind of girl did he think I was?

  “We’re getting off track here,” I said, shuffling through the pages and feeling the heat rise in my cheeks.

  “Right, maybe we should take a break,” he offered.

  “Good idea.”

  “I’m going to go outside and have a smoke. You can join me if you want?” he smiled.

  “I rather drink tar, but thanks,” I said. “And why do you smoke anyways? I would think someone with such a stellar reputation wouldn’t want to tarnish it.”

  “Maybe that’s exactly why I do it,” he said with a wink.

  I got up to look for some books. I didn’t even know what I was looking for. I walked through the stacks checking out all the different books when I saw a familiar face. I thought I was hallucinating. “Kyle?”

  I closed my eyes and shook my head. When I opened them he was gone. What the hell is going on? I was starting to think that maybe being in the library alone was not a good idea. When I returned to the table I found Aidan searching through our papers. “Hey Mr. I mean Aidan.”

  “Hey Ella,” he said a little startled. “Working on homework?” he asked, running his fingers over the books.

  “A project,” I said. “Is there something wrong?” I asked, wondering why he was here.

  “No. Just wanted to see how you were doing?” he said with a half-smile.

  “Do you check on all your students to see how they’re doing?” I walked around him, getting a warm, fuzzy feeling. I touched my stomach to try and calm the erratic flip flops it was doing.

  “Only the ones that I feel need to be checked on,” he said, reaching for my hand.

  I pulled away. “Do I have a ticking time bomb on my head or something?” I was annoyed at everyone thinking I was going to snap.

  “No,” he said defensively. “I just know how it can be being the new student and…different.”

  “How am I any different from anyone else?” I was tired of being considered the outsider when all I wanted was to be normal.

  “Ella, that’s not what I meant,” he took a step closer to me. “It’s just that I…I…”

  I felt an odd pull to him. I closed the distance between us, placing a hand on his chest. I looked up into his eyes. “Aidan,” I whispered when Roman came back into the room.

  I jumped away as Aidan took a big step back. “If you need any help with your project I’ll be more than happy to help,” he told us.

  “Thanks, but I think we got it,” Roman said curtly, making me wonder what crawled up his butt.

  “Well, if you need me I’ll be in my office,” Aidan told us, but I knew he was directing the comment at me. He gave me a sly smile before he left.

  Roman sat down at the table angrily flipping through pages. He buried his head in the books and refused to look at me. “What’s wrong with you?” I asked, perplexed by his sudden attitude change.

  He didn’t answer. Instead he slammed the books shut and stood up. “You know what, I think I’m done for the night.” He stuffed all his papers in his backpack and took off.

  “But what about our project?” I called too late. He was already gone. What the hell just happened? He was fine a few minutes ago and then when he came back and saw Aidan…that was it, it had to be Aidan, but why was Roman upset with Aidan? Not wanting to be in the library alone, I packed up my stuff and left.

  The cool blast from the outside air gave me access to what just happened. For some reason I always felt an odd warming sensation from Aidan’s nearness which also caused strange flutters in my stomach. Roman shocked me when our skin touched. This wasn’t some static electricity either, this was something different. Two completely different guys causing two completely different reactions when in contact and even though I’m aware of all this I still have no idea what any of it means.

  I zipped up my jacket, pulled up my hood, and tightened my scarf to help keep away the bitter cold. Instead of going back to my room I decided to go see Aidan in his office. With everything that was happening lately I did need someone to talk to and Aidan did say his door was always open if I needed to talk. Of the few people I could trust, I knew in my gut Aidan was one of them.

  When I arrived at his office everything was quiet. I didn’t see anyone around and assumed we must be the only two people here. But just in case I was wrong, I knocked on the door. “Ella, come in,” he said.

  “How’d you know it was me?” I as
ked, dropping my hood and loosening my scarf.

  “Your smell. You have a distinct smell,” he said, throwing me a sweet smile.

  “Don’t we all though?”

  “Well, yes, but yours is different. That’s how I knew you were at the library.”

  I didn’t even think to ask how he knew I was there. “Is that bad?” This wasn’t the first time someone had said this to me and I was starting to wonder if I stink.

  “No,” he laughed, like he knew what I was thinking. “It’s actually a very nice smell, almost intoxicating.”

  “Oh,” I blushed.

  “So, what brings you down here?” he asked as he stuffed some files away in a cabinet.

  “I was hoping maybe I could talk to you?” I was feeling a little sheepish. After saying it out loud I wasn’t so sure this was a good idea.

  “Sure, what would you like to talk about?”

  “How much time do you have?” I said semi kidding.

  He smiled and gestured for me to have a seat. He made himself comfortable in the chair adjacent to mine. I took off my jacket and scarf, draping them over the back of the chair before I took a seat. “What’s on your mind?”

  “I think I’m having a hard time adjusting to everything,” I said, looking down at my over picked cuticles.

  “That’s understandable. No one expects you to be perfect, and it’s a lot to take in at first. Just give it some time and you’ll get there.”

  He sounded just like my mom. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. I took a breath, reminding myself he was just trying to help. “It’s not just that. I mean, I don’t want to sound like a whiny kid, but all the other students stare at me because I’m different. They gawk at the blue streak in my hair and not to mention all the recent whispers and stares from the rumors about what happened in my history class.”

  “They’ll understand when they receive their powers,” he said comfortingly.

  “And I feel like I’m the only one who doesn’t know anything about anything!” I snapped, letting it all out.

  “Ella, it’s okay,” he said, placing his hand on top of mine. “And not everyone here knows everything. Some students are just as clueless as you are,” he winked, letting me know he was teasing.