The Wanderers Beginning: The Wanderers, Reborn, & Unforgiven

by Jessica Miller

  I grabbed her arm. “Break it. Break the spell now!”

  “What’s the matter? Was he not that good?” she laughed.

  I gripped her arm tighter in a desperate plea. “This isn’t funny Mackenzie. I mean it. Break the spell!” I heard a noise from behind me, panic surged through me.

  “You already did that.”

  “What are you talking about?” I said, pulling her away from the door, hearing the sound getting closer.

  “The spell breaks after you give it up. Geez, maybe you are as dumb as you look,” she said rolling her eyes.

  I knew she was mean, but this was beyond cruel. “Well, your stupid spell back fired, badly. So break it now!” She laughed, thinking she had the upper hand in this. I had enough of her comments and her vindictive behavior. She had to be taught a lesson. This time there was no one around to stop me. “You bitch!” I yelled, shoving her to the ground.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” She stood up and brushed herself off and that’s when I attacked. We wrestled back and forth on the ground, yelling and screaming. I’m surprised our chaos hadn’t caught the attention of the guardians. “Would you get off of me?”

  “No! Break the spell Mackenzie!” I yelled, grabbing a big chunk of her hair. She squealed and tried to push me off of her, but I was stronger. “You have to break the spell before it’s too late! You have no idea what you created.”

  My emotional state finally took over and she managed to push me off of her. I flew back, hitting the ground. I sat up, exposing my ripped bra and torn jeans. Mackenzie looked at me, her eyes for the first time apologetic. But before she could open her mouth, the door to the teachers’ dorm burst open and a very angry Aidan stepped out into the cold, eyes glowing.

  “Mackenzie, break the spell,” I said, getting up quickly.

  “I…I…” she stumbled.

  Aidan turned at the sound of her voice. “You. You did this,” he said, going after her.

  “Mackenzie, now!” I yelled as I charged Aidan. Fear had my adrenaline pumping, ready to take on anything. I jumped him but he threw me off. I rolled and got right back up. We each took a stance, waiting for the other to strike. “Mackenzie, I need your help here.”

  “I’m working on it!” she yelped.

  Tired of walking in circles, instinct kicked in, and I went for the attack, kicking him in the side of the knee, throwing him off balance. I spun around and kicked him again knocking him to the ground. It took him less than a minute to recover. He pounced on me, whacking us both to the ground and rolling a couple feet. Aidan was quicker and had my arms pinned to my sides. “Ella, why do you have to make me do this? Things could have been great if you would have just cooperated.” He exposed his teeth, leaning closer to my neck.

  “Mackenzie!” I shrieked.

  “Done!” she yelled.

  Just as Aidan was about to sink his teeth into my neck he froze. Something flashed in his eyes and he looked at me, scared and quivering beneath him. He fell back and scurried a few feet, looking petrified. He looked at me exposed and frightened. “Ella…what?” He was so confused. “What is going on?”

  “You might want to ask your girlfriend over there,” I said, motioning to Mackenzie.

  “Will someone please explain to me what is going on?” Aidan pleaded.

  “Is everything alright over here?” called one of the guardians as he jogged over with two more. “We heard a commotion.”

  “A little late on that one,” Mackenzie said.

  The guardian ignored her and looked at Aidan. “Mr. Callahan, I’m sorry. I did not see you there.”

  “It’s okay Rick. I got it. You guys can go back to your patrol.”

  He nodded respectfully at Aidan. All three of them were about to walk away when Rick spotted me. I quickly tightened my jacket. He took a few steps closer to me. “Miss, are you okay?” I nodded, afraid my voice would betray me.

  “Nothing you need to be concerned about,” Aidan said. “Just a small fight between classmates. I have it under control.”

  Rick glared at him from over his shoulder and then turned back to me, eyes worried. “I’m fine,” I said, trying to sound convincing. “Just a misunderstanding.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked softly.

  “Yes I’m fine,” I said, forcing a weak smile. I didn’t know if he believed me, but he didn’t ask any more questions. Before he left he gave Aidan a warning look saying, ‘I’ll be watching you’.

  Once they were gone, Aidan gestured for us to come closer. While I did move in, I still kept my distance. “Now, will someone please explain to me what the hell is going on?” Aidan asked frustrated.

  “Are you going to tell him or you going to make me,” I said, glaring at Mackenzie. She looked away from me embarrassed, making it clear she wasn’t going to confess her dirty deed. “Mackenzie put a spell on us, a lust spell.”

  He looked back at her eyes wide and slowly filling with rage again. “Why?” he asked.

  “It was just a joke. Didn’t think you’d go all crazy and what not,” she said, acting like this was in no way her fault.

  “Leave,” he growled at Mackenzie.

  “This is a free country you know. I can do what –”

  “You’ve done enough,” he spat. “I will deal with you later.” For once Mackenzie took the hint and left. Aidan tried to collect himself before he turned and faced me. “Ella I’m…” he broke off when he saw my tattered clothes. Words had lost him, but I could see in his face how sorry he felt for what he had done. He reached for me and I flinched. “Ella…you have to know that wasn’t me…it was the spell. These kind of spells…if not careful, can go horribly wrong.”

  “Yeah, I got that,” I said.

  “Ella I’m –”

  I stopped him. I knew it wasn’t his fault, but an apology right now just didn’t feel right. “I just can’t do this right now.” He came after me to stop me. “No,” I held up my hands. “I know you’re sorry and I know this wasn’t you, but I just need some time.” He nodded, understanding. I left him there, out in the quad, alone. I buttoned up my coat and walked back to my room feeling embarrassed, betrayed, pissed, and ashamed. If I didn’t somehow realize something was off I could have…I shook the thought out of my head. I couldn’t believe Mackenzie was that heartless? What the hell did I do to her to piss her off that much? This was just beyond cruel. Something needed to be done, but what? I didn’t even want to think about it anymore. I just wanted to put the entire night behind me.

  When I got back to my room it was just past one. I changed into my pajamas and climbed into bed. Tomorrow was going to be a long day and I had to get up in a few hours for my training session with Gabe. The only thing I needed right now was rest.

  I did not get the good night’s rest I so hoped for. I cried for the first hour before I eventually fell asleep. I tossed and turned all night. I had dreams about Aidan and I being together and going all the way – Mackenzie in the background laughing. I also dreamed about Jack coming after me in the maze and my friends calling for my help. When my alarm went off in the morning I felt like I only had about an hour of sleep. I wished so badly I could go back to bed, but I didn’t want to piss off Gabe.

  I dragged myself out of bed, got dressed, and headed out to the track where Gabe and Roman were already stretching. “You’re late,” Gabe scolded.

  “I’m sorry I –”

  “I don’t want to hear any excuses. Two extra laps.” I opened my mouth to say that’s not fair, but quickly closed it when Gabe narrowed his eyes at me.

  I was practically dragging my ass around the track. “Ella, pick up the pace!” Gabe yelled, making me cringe. I groaned and tried to jog faster.

  Roman ran up next to me. “You know you look like shit,” he said.

  “Thanks for the observation,” I mumbled.

  “Maybe if you weren’t out sneaking around late at night you wouldn’t be so tired.”

  “What are you talking about?” I
said annoyed.

  “I saw you Ella. I saw you go into the teachers’ dorms last night,” he spat accusingly.

  “Were you spying on me?”

  “I ran into Mackenzie and asked her if you were in your room and she told me you were taking a walk. So I tried to catch up to you and that’s when I saw you.”

  “Not that it’s any of your business, but Mackenzie is to blame for this whole thing.”

  “It’s pathetic that you can’t even admit it even after you were caught,” Roman said, pushing past me. My jaw dropped, the nerve of him, how dare he point fingers when he had no idea what was really going on. And why the hell was he looking for me? I mean really, was he that bored he felt the need to come torture me?

  “Ella, I’m not going to tell you again. Pick up the pace or I’m adding laps,” Gabe said. I sucked it up and pushed past Roman and finished my laps.

  At lunch, I apologized to Dixon for freaking out yesterday and he forgave me. He didn’t deserve that and I was glad to make things right. Besides, at the rate I was going, keeping friends might be harder than I thought. I was slowly realizing with all the catching up I had to do, plus the extra training sessions I didn’t have time for anything else - including time for friends. I tried to look at it as a good thing. The less time I spent with my new friends meant a possibility of keeping them out of danger.

  I did the same thing every day for the next few weeks. Got up, ran, then class, then training again, and then back to my room to do school work. I was in bed by nine and up at five. After our fight, Roman has yet to talk to me. I hadn’t seen Mackenzie since she confessed about the spell – no loss there – and I avoided Aidan every chance I got. I still wasn’t ready to face him yet. Frankly at this point, I almost just didn’t care about anything anymore. I was just trying to get through the semester.

  Chapter seventeen

  I woke up Saturday morning just in enough time to make breakfast. I found Riley at a small table in the corner and took a seat next to her. “Hey,” I said.

  “Hey Ella.”

  “So, I was thinking maybe we could hang out tonight?” I said, feeling like I needed to make up for lost time. It has been over three weeks since I’ve had the chance to talk or hang out with anyone, especially Riley.

  “Oh, can we maybe make plans for next weekend?”

  “Sure,” I said a little disappointed.

  “It’s just that Justin asked me to hang out. You know because we didn’t really get a chance to last time, but I can cancel if you want?”

  “No, don’t do that. I’m happy you’re going to get another chance. I’ll just see what Cameron and Sienna are doing.”

  Riley looked uncomfortable and I could tell she didn’t want to upset me. “Umm, Cameron and Sienna are hanging with us. Cameron’s bringing Austin and Sienna’s been hanging with Kenny so…”

  “So it’s a couple’s thing. I get it. It’s cool.”

  “You’re welcome to join us. We just thought you might feel a little uncomfortable with it being all couples and well, you know, after what happened last time,” her voice softened.

  “Riley, really, it’s okay. We’ll just make plans for next weekend,” I smiled, reassuring her.

  “Next weekend, definitely,” she said.

  I’d been so busy lately I didn’t know what to do now that I actually had some down time. Having time to do nothing left me with…well…time to do nothing. I thought maybe I’d call home but didn’t want to alarm my mom. I didn’t know if she had heard about the break in at school yet and I didn’t want to risk her finding out if she didn’t know – although knowing my dad I’m sure he was the first to hear about it.

  I ended up spending the weekend in my room working on school work. I thought it would be nice to be ahead instead of behind for once. I decided staying in my room would be best so that way I wouldn’t run into Roman, Mackenzie, or Aidan. That was just too many people to avoid so staying put was my best option.

  Getting the rest I so desperately needed I was able to get up in time for my training session on Monday which pleased Gabe. He praised me for being on time and said if I kept it up he’d go a little easier on me. I wasn’t quite sure if he was messing with me or not, but I decided not to take any chances.

  He had us do laps again and sprints. Roman still wasn’t speaking to me. I didn’t mind. When he did decide to talk to me it was only to insult me or make fun of me so the silence was welcomed.

  At lunch I noticed Justin and Kenny had now become additions to our table while Roman had sat alone at a table by himself. I also noticed Reagan and Blake had left our table to sit with the triplets at their new table. Apparently the new seating arrangements were a big to do. Dixon filled me in on all the gossip. Most assumed Roman was sitting by himself because of the so called public break-up between him and Mackenzie. And the whole reason Blake and Reagan were sitting somewhere else was because of Justin and Kenny. I didn’t know there was any animosity between them until Dixon informed me that Addyson used to date Justin which ended badly, causing a riff between their friendships when Reagan started dating her.

  I was just glad for once the gossip wasn’t about me. When I first got here, I was the hot topic of conversation, but just like anything else as soon as there’s new gossip it’s out with the old and in with the new. I was so happy now that I could just blend into the background unnoticed. But the way my life was I knew at any moment I could be right back in the spotlight.

  The rest of the week went by pretty much the same and by Friday there was already a new rumor spreading and the talk of new seating arrangements was already forgotten. I was looking forward to doing something with Riley this weekend until I found out Justin had surprised her with a romantic dinner and everyone else had plans as well. Apparently I had forgotten it was Valentine’s Day. That tends to happen when you’re anti- love. I should have known my friends would have plans. So once again I was alone. It’s funny, when I first got here this is what I wanted, but now it doesn’t seem as great as I thought it would be.

  By Wednesday I was tired of running. “I don’t understand how this is going to help me defend myself against a predator?” I whined to Gabe. “All this is teaching me is to run away.”

  “And that’s exactly why you need to do this,” he said.

  I stopped. “Wait, so what you’re saying is our best defense is to run?”

  “Yes. Sometimes you are going to come up against someone that you cannot beat and your only chance of surviving is to run. So let’s go. Two more laps.”

  I rolled my eyes and finished my laps. You would think by now I would have learned to keep my mouth shut, but no, I have this strange uncontrollable urge to keep opening it. Once I was done with my extra laps I met Gabe and Roman in the gym. Today we were finally going to start one on one combat. Gabe had us show him what we learned so far in self-defense. Then he went over some techniques to help us improve on what we had already learned.

  “Why do we have to learn self-defense when we have powers?” I complained, tired and out of breath.

  “What are you going to do? Heal them to death,” Roman smirked.

  I glared at him. “I can read minds too,” I said proudly.

  “Yes, that might seem like an advantage to see your attacker’s next move, but what happens when he’s stronger than you. He has the strength to keep going while you weaken and tire out, giving him the advantage,” Gabe said.

  “You just have an answer for everything, don’t you,” I mumbled to myself thinking no one heard.

  “Yes, I do,” Gabe said.

  Damn it.

  Roman smirked again. “What are you smiling about?” I snapped.

  “I guess we can’t all be as lucky as me. Having a defensive power and the moves to back it up,” he said cockily.

  “Defensive power, please, what are you going to do? Jump start their car for them,” I said laughing.

  Roman’s face turned bright red with anger. He clenched his fist and then o
pened his hand making a crackling noise. I saw a spark at the base of his palm and took a step forward, challenging him to go ahead. “That’s enough!” Gabe yelled. “You’re here to learn how to fight as if you didn’t have any powers at all. Some of the best guardians fight with nothing but their own strength. You want to argue who has the better power do it on your own time.”

  Roman and I bowed our heads at our childish behavior. “Now, Ella, you’re going to be on the defensive and Roman take the offensive,” Gabe said, getting back to business. I took my defensive pose and waited for Roman to attack. We were pretty evenly matched considering Gabe taught both of us. “Ella, pay better attention. You’re letting him get you with moves that you should have no problem blocking,” Gabe shouted.

  “What’s the matter? Afraid you’re going to break a nail?” Roman taunted. I scowled at him and concentrated.

  “That’s good Ella, now faster,” Gabe said. “Roman hit harder.”

  Roman came at me full force, but I kept up with him. I saw an opening and I took it, knocking him on his backside. I smiled and turned around, happy I won. Roman swept his leg out, knocking me down. “And that is why you never turn your back on your opponent,” Roman said.

  “Good job Roman. Ella, you’ll get there. Let’s go again.”

  Pissed off that I let Roman get me, I came at him with everything I had. Neither one of us wanted to let the other win. We kept at it. I was getting tired, but I refused to give up. I could tell Roman was tired too and I felt if I just kept this up he would eventually tire out enough and make a mistake.

  I was right. Roman was getting sloppy, and just like I predicted he made a mistake, giving me my opportunity. He swung high leaving his left side open. I struck hard and he curled forward. Then I bent down and swept my leg under him, knocking him on his back. To finish it off and claim my win, I jumped on top of him and pressed my knees down hard on his shoulders. I smiled proudly at my victory until he flipped me over his head and pinned me down.