by Jeff Hale
She rolled her eyes and grinned. “Not the stuffy, prim and proper you were expecting? I like the professional clothes for school. Reminds the students, and me, who’s in charge. My old job, when I was with MAGE, I used to dress… well, I dressed to flaunt all my attributes if you get what I mean. It got me into trouble sometimes. When I’m home, though, I like to be able to relax.”
“This is a really nice apartment,” I commented, glancing around. It was. Her furniture was expensive, but it was also comfortable looking, the kind of stuff that invited itself to be sat on and used, and it was all in shades of coral, orange, and red. The walls were covered in frames of all sizes, most of them holding scrolls or pieces of paper and parchment, as well as some things that looked like they might be wands, many different types of jewelry pieces, some crystals. There was a huge kitchen that I could see off to the right, and a dining area with sliding glass windows that went out to a balcony overlooking the complex courtyard and pool. There was a small hallway off of the living room to the left, that I guessed might go to bedrooms and bathrooms.
“Thank you.” Ms. Haid smiled at me. “I like it, and the neighbors aren’t too bad. Would you like something to drink? Water, juice, coffee, soda?”
“A soda would be great. Cola if you have it,” I told her as she went into the kitchen. She returned with a can of Coke and held it out for me. I preferred Pepsi, but Coke came in a close second.
“So, why don’t we get started by you showing me everything that you can do. Try not to destroy my apartment though. I have some pretty comprehensive homeowners insurance but let’s not push it.” She winked at me.
I took a long drink from the soda and then set it on the dining room table. I then proceeded to demonstrate all my little tricks, including the one I’d shown her in her office, but I once again left out the part about turning into a little dragon. By the time I was done, nothing was broken, but the frames had rattled themselves crooked on the walls, and the magazines she had had laying on the coffee table were scattered around the room.
“That’s about it, Ms. Haid,” I told her when I was done.
“Please, call me Bianca, at least outside of the classroom.” She was staring at me and tapping her chin with her forefinger. “Most definitely a shaman. And it looks like you are just beginning to come into your powers. Is there anyone else in your family that can do magic?”
I shook my head. “No, at least not that I’m aware of. I mean, my Gran, she can’t do magic, but she’s kind of… different, I guess.”
“What do you mean by different?”
“She’s…” I paused for a moment, trying to come up with a way to explain my Gran. “She sees things, knows things, you know, that she shouldn’t? She calls it the Sight.”
“Is this your father’s mother? Your father, he’s the rakshasa, right? What’s his name again?”
“Lochlan, Lochlan Shaughnessy,” I answered, “and no, this is my mother’s mother.”
“Is your mother’s side of the family Irish too?” Bianca began picking up magazines and putting them back on the coffee table.
“Yeah, both sides are, going way back. My mom was born in Ireland and so was my da. My mom’s parents moved to the States when she was little, but my father met her when they went back to visit family, and then he came back with her. I don’t know about my grandparents on my da’s side. They’ve been dead a long time.”
“That could explain it,” Bianca said, more to herself than to me.
“What could?”
“The magic. Lots of stories and legends come out of Ireland, hell, out of the entire British Isles. Your mother might be human, but there might be some genetic trait for magic being passed down on her mother’s side, that skipped to you.” She put her hands on her hips and looked me up and down. “So, I think we should work on fine tuning your control of the air around you. You said you could manipulate doors shut, but that’s pretty easy. How about we try for knocking one magazine off that pile. Just one.”
“One?” My laugh was full of uncertainty. “We’ll see.”
We spent the next couple of hours with Bianca trying to teach me how to focus the magic, to feel what it was I was pulling on more acutely and to direct it with more finesse. More often than not, the pile of magazines ended up strewn all over the room, but I was finally able to succeed in pushing the whole pile off of the table in one grouping, which Bianca claimed was a step in the right direction. By the time I accomplished that I was so tired I just wanted to go home and sleep. Bianca laughingly told me that I would continue to get better over time and that I should practice at home. She also told me that I would need to head down to the local MAGE office and register as a sorcerer. I already had as a shifter, but the files would need to be updated. We set up another time for me to work with her during the next week, then I went down to the MAGE office to take care of the update before I forgot, then I drove home. Darien and Alex were out, so I headed straight for my bed, curled up and fell into an exhausted sleep, my last thoughts worry over Celeste and what Travis had done to her.
I didn’t hear anything from Celeste over the next couple of days, and when I called Kris to see if she had talked to the other girl, she hadn’t either. I told Kris about what happened, although she hadn’t been too surprised to learn that Travis was an utter douche. As for her own problems with Matt, all she would tell me was that nothing had improved. She was happy to find out that I was taking steps with Bianca to learn about my magic, though.
Classes might be out for the summer, but I still had practice for the dance and cheerleading squad. I was headed to the student parking Tuesday afternoon after practice when I felt my phone ring. I dug it out of my pants pocket and flipped it open hurriedly when I saw that it was my mother.
“Mom! I haven’t heard from you in a while. I was getting a bit worried, how are you?” I asked her brightly, feeling a smile curve my lips.
“Hey, sweetie! I’m doing… good. Sorry I haven’t called in so long, things have been, different around here lately.” She sounded happy but her voice had an odd catch to it.
“What’s wrong?” I was suddenly suspicious. I knew that my father’s rakshasa pack was still playing politics with the vampire family that had been causing him problems, that the other family had been making more aggressive moves recently.
“Oh, nothing, not really. Oh, I don’t know how to break this any other way, but I did it, sweetie.” There was silence on the other end, as though she were waiting for my response.
She did it? She did what? I was confused for several seconds before it finally dawned on me what she was talking about.
Shit.
“Are you okay, did it all work?” I asked in concern. I knew what the ‘it’ was now; she had found someone to change her to a shifter, which would allow my father to turn her into a rakshasa.
She laughed, a strangely lyrical quality to her voice now. “Yes, I’m fine, and we’re pretty sure it worked. I will admit that the process was a bit painful, but I don’t regret it. I hope it was easier for you, sweetie.”
“It was, Mom. Because of Da’s blood, it didn’t take much.” I felt relief go through me, that it was done, that she had survived it… that I wouldn’t have to attend my mother’s funeral one day. “So who did you get to make you a shifter?”
She didn’t answer for a second, then, “Oh, just someone your father trusts,” she said dismissively, “nothing to worry about.”
“Oh, all right, as long as you’re okay, I guess. What did your Aspect animal end up being?”
She laughed again. “We’re not sure yet. I haven’t changed yet, it’s only been a few weeks.”
She was right, it had only been that long. It just seemed like more time had gone by. “Are you sure, then? That you will change?”
“Yeah, kiddo, we are. I can feel differences already, even if they are small ones. And the person that did it, well he said he could feel the… what is it called, cub tie?” she assured me.
&nb
sp; “That’s the right term,” I said. “Well, I’m glad you got what you wanted and you’re okay, Mom. I’m about ready to get in the car and head home. I’ll call you tonight and we can talk more?”
“Sure thing, sweetie, love you!”
I slid the phone back into my pocket, was maybe twenty feet from my car, when it buzzed, alerting me to a text. I fished it back out, waiting until I could lean against my car before reading it.
I didn’t recognize the number, and when I pulled up the message, it read:
How did the talk with Mommy go?
What the hell? I double checked the number, wondering if maybe it was from my father, but it wasn’t the one I had in my address book. I tried calling it, but it did nothing but ring, before finally telling me that the owner hadn’t set up a voice mail account. I looked around the parking lot, seeing nothing but other students milling about, talking, getting in their cars.
Shrugging, I put the phone back in my pocket and tossed my gym bag in the car. My phone buzzed again as I started the engine. It was the same number again, with another text:
You really should ask Darien where he went at the beginning of May. A family birthday perhaps?
I glanced around out the car window, still not seeing anyone that looked like they were showing any interest in me or seemed out of place, then glanced at the message again, wondering what it meant.
I was half way home when it finally hit me. Darien had gone to Oregon to deal with some shifter thing that was so minor it didn’t need all of us, and it had been at the beginning of May, a day or two after my mother’s birthday. I hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, but now that the text had me thinking suspiciously, I was just that, suspicious.
Just someone my father trusted, my mother had said. I knew damned well that my father had an extremely strong attachment to Darien. The only other person he trusted that much was Matt, and Matt wouldn’t have been capable of doing it.
I slammed my hands on the steering wheel. Damn him! He knew that I was afraid something would happen to her! The fact that she was okay didn’t matter, he had still gone behind my back, thought it unimportant enough to not tell me, or that I was too naïve to know.
I was so tired of him treating me like a child.
SIXTEEN
DARIEN
I had just taken a shower and was finishing getting dressed, in jeans, boots, and a navy blue t-shirt, when I heard the apartment door slam shut. I came out of the bedroom to find Kat standing there, eyes wild. When she saw me, she flung her gym bag violently onto the couch.
“Why didn’t you tell me you changed her?” she demanded irately, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at me.
“Who?” I asked, although I thought I might already know.
“Short, blonde, blue eyes, I generally call her ‘Mom’?” Her eyes were dark and I could tell that she was struggling to keep control of herself.
“You talked to your mom?” Lochlan had assured me that neither he nor Roslyn would tell Kat what I had done, so either Roslyn had said something, or Kat had put two and two together. “She told you?”
“That’s all you’re going to say? You lie to me about heading out of town on shifter business, you change my mom when you knew I was worried about her, you don’t tell me anything about it—”
“I don’t have to tell you everything, Kat,” I said defensively.
“She’s my mother, Darien!” Her voice was shrill. “You made her a shifter!”
“Only because your father asked me to if you wouldn’t—”
“And you do everything my father asks you to now? He’s your Alpha?” she interrupted, lips pursed, eyes accusing.
“No!” I bristled. “But it was going to get done one way or the other, Kat, and your mother and father preferred it to be someone they considered family!”
“Then why did you hide it from me, Darien? I had to find out from some anonymous text! Why did you lie?”
“Who texted you?”
“I don’t know! It was anonymous!” she reminded me.
Someone who had followed me to Oregon and had seen me savage Roslyn, someone who wanted to stir up shit between me and Kat to force an argument. I didn’t have any idea who would do that, but it had to be somebody that one, or both, of us knew.
“You never answered my question. Why did you lie?” Kat demanded, breaking my thoughts.
I had been doing it so she wouldn’t worry, or at least I thought I had. Maybe I had felt guilty over having to hurt Roslyn, I wasn’t sure. I sure as hell didn’t need Kat crawling my case over something that wasn’t a concern anymore.
“It was none of your business, so I didn’t feel it was—”
“None of my business?!” she yelled. “None of my business? I am your girlfriend! You Blooded my mother when you knew I was worried something might go wrong and she might die! I know damn well how I would have felt if I had killed her, how do you think I would have felt if you had accidentally killed her? Huh? And now you tell me it was none of my business? How do you expect me to feel, Darien?”
“I expect you to be happy that she’s fine, that she got what she wanted and she didn’t have to have some stranger do it because you were too fucking selfish to do that one important thing that your mother asked of you!” I shot back, raising my voice. I knew what I said was harsh, but she needed a dose of harsh.
She gasped, almost as though I had hit her, and blinked back tears. “You know what? Screw you, Darien. You can do whatever you want from now on for all I care!” She snatched her purse up and stormed out the door, slamming it again behind her with enough force that two of the pictures on the entertainment center fell over, while I just stood and stared at the door in shock.
“Hgah!” The growl exploded from me as I drove my fist through the end table, splintering it into several pieces.
What right does she have to be angry with me? If I hadn’t done it, then Lochlan would have found someone else who would have. Maybe it was because Kat and I didn’t see things the same way, but if I was going to die because I asked someone to change me, I would rather die at the hand of a friend than a stranger. If she hadn’t been so wrapped up in her own worries about how she would feel if her mother died then maybe she would have seen that Roslyn was asking that she die by a loved one’s hand if anything went wrong.
Did Kat even stop to think how I felt having to hurt her mother like that?
“Hey, everything okay in here?” a familiar voice asked hesitantly.
I looked up, fury still overwhelming me, to see Nina peeking through the partially opened front door. I didn’t say anything, wasn’t sure I’d even be able to articulate coherently.
She stepped in, shutting the door behind her and leaning against it, wearing nothing but a pair of red hotpants and a denim vest over a bikini top. “I just came by to see if Alex was home. Kat zipped by me out of the parking lot so fast she just about left peel out marks, then I heard,” her glance dropped to the splintered table, “that when I got to the door. You guys okay?”
“Alex isn’t here.” My voice was low, rough. I had a shitload of anger in me at the moment and nowhere to direct it that wouldn’t lose Kat her security deposit. “You should go.”
“You two have a fight?” she asked, a calculating look in her eyes as she pushed away from the door and sauntered over to me. She placed one hand against my chest and looked up at me, eyes soft, tongue running over her lips.
“Not a good idea right now, Nina,” I grated out.
“It’s always a good idea,” she whispered, smiling.
Lust hit me, coming off of her in a tangible wave, and as strong as it was I could tell she was close to shifting for the first time. I didn’t think Alex was responsible since he hadn’t mentioned a cub bond to her, so it must have been one of those other interests that he had mentioned. Either way, I didn’t care. My willpower was so overtaxed at keeping my anger under control that this new intrusion did me in.
I snarled at her
, grabbing a handful of her hair as I yanked her head back and ran my lips across her neck, grazing her skin with my teeth.
“That’s right,” she whispered throatily, “give in to it, just let it happen. Fuck me any way you want me, Darien, Kat will never have to know.” She already had her barely there pants on the floor near her feet.
With a growl I let the beast have its way, pushing Nina down to the floor and letting my anger play itself out just like she wanted it to.
________________________________
I sat on the floor, leaning against the couch back, elbows on my drawn up knees and head in my hands, trying to comprehend what I had just done.
Nina had left a few minutes before, her cheery remark of, “One to go!” baffling me as I had pulled my clothes back on, a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I could have blamed Nina, I could have blamed her overly strong kitty wiles, but ultimately I could only blame myself for letting myself get so angry that I had lost control in the first place.
Kat was going to hate me. Not only had I messed up and had sex with someone else, but it had been with her friend. I certainly wasn’t going to lie to her about it.
The front door opened and closed, softly. I heard a sharp intake of breath. “Darien?” It was Kat’s voice.
I didn’t say anything, not sure there was anything I could say that wouldn’t make it all worse than it already was.
I heard footsteps, heard the bedroom door open, then shut a few seconds later, then her startled “Oh!” as she saw me sitting on the floor.
“I came back to apologize,” she said quietly, a tremble in her voice hiding another emotion. “To tell you that I over reacted, that you were right.” She made a noise somewhere between a hiccup and a sob. “Guess you took my last words to heart,” she whispered sadly. “Don’t try to deny it, I can smell her, you, what you did…” There was a soft thump as she dropped to her knees on the floor. “Did you want to hurt me that badly?”