“Yeah, but it only has a few spells in it so far that I like. I’m not very big on writing stuff down. But generally, each coven has one… I guess master book would be a good name. And in that book, they keep a history, spells, prophecies, etcetera. Does that make sense?”
“Okay, I get it. Does that mean your great-grandmother was a coven leader way back whenever?”
“I can’t believe we haven’t had this conversation yet. I guess we’ve spent most of our time enjoying each other,” I grinned. “And getting to know each other of course.”
Nick smiled and said, “Of course. But you’re right. We haven’t really talked about our people. I mean, you’ve told me how you do magic and I’ve told you about shifting, but not much else. So, tell me more.”
I got up and put my suitcase on the chair in the corner of the room before settling into bed. I was already in my pajamas for the night so I slipped under the covers and fluffed my pillow to lean back on against the headboard. Nick slid over next to me and took my hand in his.
“So, you know how I have my circle?” He nodded. “Well, several circles make up our coven. Our parents have their own circle together, too. And our coven is actually still in Europe. That reminds me that I want to know why they all came over here. Nonna saw them coming, but I don’t think Mamma has ever told me if there’s a why behind it.”
“Yeah, and why would the wolves move here if we hated you? We’ll have to ask when we get back,” Nick added.
“I can ask Nonna when we get to Italy. Okay, back to the coven. Right now, Nonna is the head of our coven. When she dies, Mamma will lead.”
“Again with the women,” Nick interrupted, smiling.
“Women will take over the world someday, you know. Anywho, even though Nat and Jack’s parents actually moved from France, they were all part of the southern coven. And when they all came to America, they kept their circle together.”
“My head is spinning, but I’m trying to follow. So, is it just your parents that are part of the circle? And how does this all go back to the book your mamma has?” Nick had his brow furrowed again.
“Sorry, I’m probably all over the place. My parents, Rosetta, and the other parents of my circle members had their own circle. Now, without Ky’s and Marco’s parents, it’s just the others. Luca had his own circle, but those tools ruined that one so he joined mine along with Helene.
But back to the book, my great-grandmother was the one to keep the master book for the coven. It was passed down to her from her mother, and on and on. I will inherit the book when I become leader. Nonna probably just wanted Mamma to have it here with her. So, for now, is it making sense?”
“Sὶ, I think I got it now. Does your mamma have any brothers or sisters? You don’t have any other family here do you?”
“She’s the oldest, but she has a younger sister and a younger brother. We’ll get to meet them while we’re there. I forgot about that bonus,” I smiled. “I’ve never even met them, only talked to them on Skype. I have like a ton of cousins.”
“Crap, I didn’t realize I was meeting the entire family. What if they don’t like me? Gia said things are still the same over there.” Nick asked.
“Yeah, but not with my family. When Mamma called them, they accepted it. And besides, you’re perfect. Of course they’ll love you. Now, your turn for a story.”
“Uh… what do you want to know?”
“Well, you have leaders and stuff, don’t you? How does the whole hierarchy thing work with weres?”
“Well, there are two groups of us here. That’s how I know Beth and Yvette. Don’t make that face.” I sighed. The sound of Beth’s name made me cringe.
“What? You do the same thing when anyone says his name,” I said, referring to Ky.
“Moving on. So there are several packs in Italy in the Alps and across the mountains in France. We have our individual packs—like how I have my own and Babbo has his own—but then we also belong to a larger pack. A council of sorts, that is in charge of both countries.”
“Okay, so like several circles that make up a coven?” I interrupted.
“Sὶ, and Babbo is on the council. Three pack leaders from Italy and three from France make up the council.”
“And what do they do? Are they like the bosses of all of you?” I teased.
“They just get together to make sure the territories are safe and we’re all staying hidden from the human world.”
“Why, do some weres ‘come out of the closet’?”
Nick laughed. “There have been a few through the generations that have taken human partners, so the Council has to make sure the secret doesn’t go any further than that.”
“Oh, that’s cool. I didn’t realize you were allowed to take humans as mates.”
“We usually don’t, but then again, no one has taken a witch mate since Henri and Adelina.” I smiled. “What’s that look for?” he smiled back.
“Just happy to be here with you. Happy that we changed things. I love your pack—even Dash.” Nick chuckled. “And I love that we can all hang out together. Our differences shouldn’t matter.”
“For a while, I thought I was going to have to protect Dash from you. You can be one mean witch when you want to be. I’ve seen it first-hand.” He leaned towards me and kissed me softly at first, but it quickly turned into more. Our enlightening conversation was done for the night.
We slept late in the morning since our plane didn’t leave until really late that night. Mamma called me around noon to make sure I had my grandparents’ address. “Do you need the directions?” she asked. I was sitting on the couch in my pajamas with the TV on pause. Nick was in the kitchen making meatball subs for lunch.
“No, Mamma. We have smartphones,” I answered.
“Oh yes, I forget. Everything can be done on the phones now. Can you come over before you leave? I have some things for your cousins. I want them to have something from America.”
“Oh sure. We’ll come over after lunch. Is Babbo home so I can say goodbye?”
“Sὶ, he is working nights again.”
“Okay, great. We’ll see you soon.” I hung up the phone and told Nick the plan. He brought the sandwiches over and put them on the coffee table. “Mamma wants us to come over to get some souvenirs for my cousins. Who knows what cheesy stuff she bought.”
“Sounds good. Let’s stop by the restaurant after that so I can say goodbye to my parents.”
“Did you even tell them we were leaving?” I asked.
“I called them while you were in the shower before bed last night. They’re excited for us. They want us to go north and visit my family too. But we don’t have to if you don’t feel like it.”
“No way, of course we’ll go. I’m excited. And if they don’t like me, I’ll give them all diarrhea or something,” I grinned.
Nick laughed and said, “I’d love to see that.” I turned off the TV and practically scarfed my sub down. “I love that about you.”
“What?” I asked with a mouthful of meatball.
“That you aren’t afraid to pig out in front of me. Most girls I know act like they never eat anything at all.”
“I’m sure those girls go home and eat a pint of ice cream in one sitting while they put on their stretchy pants,” I said with a straight face. Nick laughed again and almost spit out a chunk of bread.
“By the way, are these homemade meatballs? They’re absolutely amazing.”
“Like I would ever buy meatballs at the store,” he looked at me like it was the dumbest thing I had ever said.
I wiped my mouth on a paper towel and went to the bedroom to get dressed. I opted for a loose V-neck shirt and yoga pants for the plane so I would be comfortable for the thirteen hour flight to Nice, France. It was the closest airport to my family’s home in Ventimiglia, Italy. We would drive through Menton in France on our way there. It was where Nat and Jack’s families were from. I decided that we should stop by and say hello on the way back when our time in I
taly was done.
Nick was already dressed in loose fitting jeans and his “Always be yourself unless you can be a pirate, then always be a pirate” T-shirt. He and Dash liked to try and one-up each other with the goofy T-shirts.
I walked back out to the living room and he asked, “Comfy?”
“Are you talkin’ smack about my stretchy pants? There’s no way I’m wearing jeans on a thirteen hour flight.”
“I wasn’t ‘talkin’ smack’. I was sincerely asking if you were comfortable enough for the flight,” he said innocently.
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, okay, sure. Let’s just go.” On the short drive across town to my parents’ house I suggested that we ask someone to take us to the airport so we wouldn’t have to leave Nick’s car there for so long. “It’s brand new and beautiful. I don’t trust those parking lot attendants to take proper care of it. Haven’t you ever seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?”
“Of course I have. I don’t live under a rock. Do you really think anyone is going to want to make that drive down and back just to drop us off?” He brought up a good point.
“Can’t we just order one of your pack to do it? How ‘bout Dash? He could take Helene and they could make a whole date of it. See the sites in Phoenix, go clubbing. There’s a really awesome one there that I love.” That got a loud laugh out of him.
“You mean all the beautiful cacti they have down there? Not to mention, it’s like two hundred degrees there right now.”
“Exaggerate much? I must be rubbing off on you. That’s totally something I would say,” I smiled at him.
He pulled into the driveway, and as he turned off the car said, “I bet he’d do it. But you ask him. I think he actually respects you more than me and he’s probably still annoyed with how I yelled at him the other day. And you could mention Helene without it sounding weird.”
We let ourselves in and saw Luca on the couch with an extra-large bowl of cereal watching Zombieland. “Is that breakfast?” I asked.
“Yup,” he answered with a mouth full of Lucky Charms.
“Is that a mixing bowl?” I asked, dumbfounded. Nick laughed as my jaw dropped. Luca just gave me a stupid grin. “Where’s Mamma anyway?”
“In her room, but you might not want to go in there. Babbo’s in there with her.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me.
“Uck! Now I’ll have that image in my head, stupido.”
Just then Mamma came out and asked, “What lies is this boy telling you about me?”
“That you and Babbo were…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it.
“Luca Morini!” she yelled in her best Italian mom voice.
“We were talking about when to kick you out of the house,” Babbo said as he walked in the room. I tried to stifle a laugh.
“What? But you said if I got a job I could stay.” Milk dribbled down Luca’s chin as he said it.
“No, Mamma told you that. Not me.”
“Do it!” I jumped in. “It’s about time he learned how to be an adult.”
“Hey, you stay out of it, traitor. I’m always on your side,” Luca frowned at me. “Where would I go?”
Mamma put her hand on Babbo’s arm and said to Luca, “No, he is joking, I will never kick out mio bel bambino.” Nick and I started laughing and Luca gave me a dirty look. “What? Why do you laugh? He is my baby and so are you. I don’t care if you are twenty or sixty, you will always be my babies.”
“But you will start paying rent,” Babbo cut in. “Look at how much you eat!”
“What? I’m a growing ‘bambino’,” Luca said with a goofy grin.
“Um, we don’t have all day. Can we get these trinkets you want us to take to Italy?” I reminded Mamma why we were standing there.
“Sὶ, I will get them.” She left the room and Babbo stood behind Luca on the couch to see what he was watching.
“What is it with the zombies? Always the zombies.” He shook his head and walked over and kissed me on the cheek.
Mamma came back quickly with a huge box of chocolates from the local Alpine Chocolates. It wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought she would have some cheesy Tshirts or something for my cousins. Underneath the chocolates, there was a beautiful nature photo of the forest and mountains behind our house. “Luca took this picture. I thought they should have a piece of Arizona in Italy to remember us,” Mamma said.
I turned to Luca, astonished. “Since when do you take photos?”
He turned from his movie and said, “I’ve been experimenting with photography lately. I think I might have finally found something I’m interested in for a career. I’m going to take a few classes in the fall at the university.”
“Shut-the-front-door!” I practically yelled.
Babbo started laughing. “These expressions you use are so strange.”
“You’re for reals going to school? That’s so amazing, Luca.” I walked over and gave him a fist bump.
“It’s really not that big a deal,” he almost looked embarrassed that I was freaking out about it.
“That’s great, man,” Nick added. “I bet you’ll be great at it.” Then he turned to me, “Well, we should probably make sure we are all packed up, Sofia.” Nick and both of our parents were the only ones I ever let get away with using my full name instead of the shortened, Sof that everyone else used.
“Oh yeah. And we still have to see if Dash will take us to Phoenix.”
“Already texted him while you were freaking out about your brother going to college,” he smiled.
“I thought you wanted me to ask,” I remembered.
“I figured it would just be quicker to text him. He’s in. He’s pretty stoked about the trip with Helene.”
“Okay. Well, Mamma, Babbo, love you. See you at the ceremony if not sooner.” I gave them each cheek kisses.
“Uh, hello? What about me?” Luca pretended to be offended. I went over to the couch and kissed Luca as well, but as I bent over the back, he grabbed me and threw me on his lap. I started to giggle as he poked me in the ribs.
“Tap! I tap out,” I cried. He released me and I walked back over to Nick. We said goodbye and left for home to make sure we had everything we needed for the trip.
I looked at the time and realized I hadn’t finished packing and we still had to go to the restaurant to say goodbye to Daniela and Aberto. I wanted to make sure we had enough time for the two hour drive to the airport and still be there early enough for check-in. “Relax, Bella. Dash drives like me.”
“Oh great,” I mumbled. I was all for going fast, but the combination of Dash and speed made me nervous.
~Chapter Eight~
We left for the restaurant where we said goodbye to his parents and Robby. Daniela made sure I had her parents’ address and Aberto told her not to forget to give me his sister’s address so we could visit his father and sister. His sister had never been married and his mother died when he was a young boy. She rolled her eyes and Nick whispered to me that his mom was not a fan of his grandfather. Robby told me to bring him something cool from Italy.
When I asked for an idea, he told me a hot Italian chick. Daniela smacked him on the back of the head and he laughed.
When we got back to our place, I double checked my suitcase before I added the chocolates and photo. Nick’s bag was half the size of mine.
“That’s all you’re bringing?” I asked. “I don’t need six pairs of shoes and two outfits for each day,” he teased.
“I will have you know that there are only two pairs in here—one dressy and some sandals. And I do not have two outfits a day. But I wear more than one pair of pants in a week.” I stuck my tongue out at him and he laughed.
We had some dinner and watched TV for a bit. Despite my earlier panic, Nick reminded me that we didn’t even need to leave for Phoenix until ten.
Dash called to say he was in the parking lot, “Heaven forbid he should make the three flight trip up here.”
“In case you hadn’t noticed by now, Dash can be a l
ittle lazy,” Nick said as we walked out the front door.
“So, does he run slow when he’s a wolf?” I asked. I had never seen any of the other weres when they were in wolf form.
“No, he loves speed. He’s always trying to race everyone.”
“That sounds like Dash,” I smiled as we walked up to his car.
“What sounds like Dash?” he asked, opening the trunk for our bags.
“You trying to race everyone when you’re a wolf,” I answered. He just gave me a goofy grin and got back in the driver’s seat of his new silver Mustang.
I hadn’t seen the car before. “Where’d you get this beauty? Steal it?” I asked, getting in the backseat next to Nick.
“Graduation present,” he grinned.
“Wow, that’s really nice of your parents,” I said.
“They were so surprised I actually graduated that they bought me a car.” I laughed out loud. I was a little surprised he had graduated, too. He took his studies about as serious as he treated everything else in life. Though, since I had joined their group, he had stopped harassing people in the hallways at school. He told me it was because he was afraid of me. I thought maybe it was a sign that he was growing up.
Nick was right about the drive not taking as long as it should. We were there in an hour and a half. Dash and Helene were planning to go to the club I told them about, but they couldn’t get in until after hours when the club stopped serving alcohol.
“Are your parents really okay with you being gone all night?” I asked Helene as we pulled into town. “I thought they were still a little unsure about Dash. He doesn’t strike me as the most responsible person.”
“Uh, sitting right here,” Dash complained. “And what makes you think that, Sof? I will have you know that I’m very responsible and would never let anything happen to ma belle, Helene.” Nick and I both laughed and Dash pretended to be offended.
“Jack told them that they didn’t have to worry because Dash knows he would kill him if anything happened to me. Plus, school’s out,” she smiled as she stared at Dash. I could tell how much they really liked each other.
We planned on grabbing a quick bite to eat at the airport before our flight, but Dash invited us to “fourth meal” with them instead because of the extra time we had. Werewolves tended to eat more than the average person.
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