Down the Dirt Road (The Dirt Road Series Book 1)

by Livell James

  “Sounds great, Grandma. You know, you’re going to have to give me the recipe for the tea someday. I tried to buy some in the supermarket, but it wasn’t the same.”

  “Oh, child, it’s a family recipe, I’ll have to write it down for you. That stuff in the supermarkets is over-processed, it doesn’t have the same effect as fresh mint and tea leaves. But don’t you worry, while you’re here, all you have to do is ask, and I’ll whip you up a cup. Now, how about some breakfast?” Grandma Ruth asked, a smile on her face. Like what she said just made perfect sense, and Kaylee should accept it because it’s just the way it was. For now, she would, but pretty soon she was going to get some answers. She wasn’t the same naïve little girl, anymore and being at her grands for just one day was proving that. But Kaylee could only deal with one thing at a time, and right now, Lucas and his actions were her priority.

  “Sorry, Grandma, but I’m just not hungry this morning. I think I’m going to go for a walk and let the fresh air clear my mind. Maybe if I walk long enough, I’ll build up an appetite,” Kaylee said. She doubted her words and from the look on her grandma’s face, she did too.

  “Okay, dear, whatever you think is best.”

  Kaylee hurried off to the trail leading to the cabin. Her grandpa hadn’t been at breakfast, so she assumed he was working on the cabin, and if he was, Lucas would be there. Just like the day before, a weird, nervous feeling came over her, but she blew it off, thinking everyone had that feeling when walking alone in the woods or an isolated area, right?

  Today though, it had a different feel to it than yesterday. The sun had been shining, but now it was hidden behind thick, dark, and gloomy clouds. Kaylee started to walk faster. She didn’t like the look of the clouds and fog was starting to roll in out of nowhere. What the hell?

  Kaylee’s heart was beating so hard and fast, she was afraid the damn thing was going to come right out of her chest. She tried every excuse she could think of, talking to herself. This is perfectly normal, fog can happen at any time of the day, it’s just nature at work. Yeah, that didn’t help, and she didn’t believe a word of it. I’m just freaked out because of the creepy dream. This is nothing. That didn’t help either, so she started to jog; the faster she got to the cabin, the better she would feel.

  Kaylee heard a branch crack and started running faster, only in a different direction. She knew someone was behind her, and she felt like she was being herded, like an animal. Looking back over her shoulder, but keeping her pace, she saw a figure of a man through the now incredibly thick fog, walking close behind her; it didn’t feel right, he didn’t feel right.

  “You know, you shouldn’t be out here by yourself,” a voice said, scaring the hell out of her.

  Kaylee stopped and spun around in a circle, looking for the person the voice belonged to, and faltered. She knew she should have kept running, but there was something familiar about the voice. Every little sound made her jump—the crunch of leaves, the call of a bird somewhere, and the heavy thud of boots hitting the earth.

  “Who's there?” she asked, her voice cracking in fear.

  The fog cleared a little, finally allowing her to see who the voice came from. Matt was leaning against a tree with his head down, the hood up on his sweatshirt.

  “Who are you to tell me where I should and shouldn’t be on my grandparent’s property? Isn’t it you who shouldn’t be out here?” she said as snidely as possible, pissed off he would scare her like that.

  Matt straightened his body from his leaning position, pushing the hood off his head, and looked at her.

  “No, Kaylee, I’m supposed to be out here. It’s you who shouldn’t be out here alone, it’s dangerous.”

  “Really,” Kaylee snarked, her anger fueling her need to put this asshole in his place again. Kaylee stomped to where he stood and poked him in the chest. “Tell me why I’m in danger on this land, since you seem to know so much.”

  Matt didn’t get a chance to answer her. Lucas came barreling at them from out of nowhere. When he got close to them, he addressed his brother first, ignoring Kaylee all together.

  “Matthias, that’s enough, leave her alone and go back to the house!!” Lucas yelled.

  Kaylee’s eyes were shooting back and forth between the brothers, like she was watching a tennis match. Lucas had a black eye and a bruise on his cheek. Matt wasn’t looking much better with several smaller cuts and scrapes on his own face. What the hell had happened to them? Kaylee wondered. It wasn’t the only thing she noticed. Now that she was actually looking closely at them, their eyes were different, just like the other day when Lucas took off running away from her. Lucas’ normally blue eyes had a somewhat gold tone to them, now, the blue only showing around the edges. Matt’s were the same, only his green showing around the edges, and both of their eyes were brighter, as if there was a light behind them or a glow.

  Matt walked off mumbling, “My name is Matt stop calling me Matthias!” He hated the name, it’s what Marcus called him when he was angry.

  Lucas was watching him. Kaylee, on the other hand, was watching Lucas.

  “Lucas. Your eyes changed colors!” Kaylee blurted out. At her statement, Lucas turned and looked at her, but his eyes were his usual blue again with none of the gold tones.

  “You’re seeing things, Kaylee,” he dismissed.

  Kaylee noticed it wasn’t only his eyes which had changed, so had he. He wasn’t smiling or warm like before, there was a coldness to him. She tried changing tactics; maybe if she got him to talk, she could figure out what the hell was going on.

  “Lucas, why would your brother tell me I shouldn’t be out here by myself?” Kaylee asked. When she tried to touch his arm, Lucas jumped away from her as if her touch was poison; after what they had shared yesterday that really hurt.

  “Listen, Kaylee, you need to stay out of the woods unless one of your grands are with you. There are things out here which could hurt you. And you need to stay away from me and my brother,” Lucas said, moving away from her.

  Kaylee knew he was keeping something from her. He had a different look—worried or scared—on his face; it didn’t make sense. She didn’t know him that well, but she couldn’t imagine much scared Lucas Valentin.

  “Tell me what’s going on, Lucas, and why you ran away yesterday?”

  “Yesterday was nothing, Kaylee.” Lucas put his hands up as if to ward her off. “You need to do what I said, stay out of the woods and away from me.”

  The words tore out a piece of her heart.

  Chapter 11

  The weeks went by in a blur for Kaylee since that day in the woods when Lucas demanded she stay away from him and his brother. She hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him which hurt more than she cared to admit. Not even on her and Grandma’s weekly trip to the store. Matt had apparently quit working there; Kaylee knew because she asked. She was desperate to get some answers why Lucas’ attitude had changed so abruptly toward her. She had hoped Matt would be able to help her out, but like his brother, he seemed to have disappeared from the planet.

  That wasn’t exactly right because she knew Lucas had been around, she could feel him. A couple of nights before, when she went to bed, she had seen him standing by the shed, watching her. She never got the feeling he was watching her like a creepy, peeping Tom, more like he was watching over her to keep her safe from the dangers he had talked about. The one time she ran out to talk to him, he had already been gone before she made it out the door.

  Other weird things were going on, too. Kaylee hadn’t moved out to the cabin even though she knew it was ready because her grandpa had taken ill, staying in bed most of the time or at least that’s what her Grandma Ruth said. Kaylee had only seen him a handful of times, and the truth was, he didn’t look at all sick to her. She didn’t want to believe her grands would lie to her in such a way, but things weren’t adding up, only confusing her more.

  Then there were the dreams and that damn tea. Every night, her Grandma Ruth would fix the drink for he
r, and Kaylee would gulp it down like a good little girl, even though she didn’t want to. It didn’t make sense; she would repeat time and time again to herself she wasn’t going to drink the damn tea, but as soon as the cup was put in her hand or placed in front of her, she drank it. Then she would go to sleep, and the man’s voice would be there.

  Lucas’ presence, however, was absent. She felt like he was trying to break through the black to get to her, but he never made it. The only thing she heard was the voice, offering her everything she had ever wanted—a great job, money, and even a damn cat. He would say she could have it all, she only had to come to him. Every night her answer was the same, NO. She started hating even the thought of going to bed at night.

  Kaylee had started to spend as much time in her room as possible, avoiding her grands, but tonight was going to be different. She was going to sit her Grandma Ruth down and demand some answers. When she walked into the kitchen, she wasn’t surprised her Grandma Ruth was sitting at the table waiting for her, but what did surprise her though was there wasn’t a cup of tea on the table, only a book. Kaylee walked to the table and sat down, not saying a word.

  “Kaylee, there are some things I need to talk to you about,” she said, tapping her finger against the book. Kaylee looked down briefly and noticed the book was large, but it also looked incredibly old.

  “Okay,” she answered, looking back up at her grandma. Kaylee was done asking questions and not getting any answers. If her grandma was going to talk, Kaylee would listen. Then she would demand, not ask, what she wanted to know.

  “Your birthday is next week, and I need to start preparing your Ostara ceremony.”

  “My what?” Kaylee looked at her grandma, thoroughly confused.

  “Your Ostara, Kaylee.” Grandma Ruth groused. “It’s the day you will come into your powers.”

  “My what?” Kaylee asked, shocked at what she was hearing.

  “Your magic, Kaylee. You come from a long line of witches. You, though, are different, you’re to become a high priestess. You will gain knowledge of all your powers, along with all the family spells and potions. It will come to you at all once. You were born on the day of the blue moon, and your Ostara will fall on another. In our world it means your magic will be legendary. The strongest of your generation.”

  Kaylee laughed, she wasn’t the strongest of anything.

  “I knew keeping this from you and binding your magic was a bad idea, but your mother wanted you to have a normal life until there wasn’t any choice. Well, there isn’t any now. You will come into your powers on your twenty-fifth birthday. You will have two moon rises to decide whether that magic is used for the light or for the dark. Do you hear what I’m saying to you, Kaylee? This is nothing to laugh about!” her grandma shouted.

  Kaylee’s brain was having a hard time keeping up, but one thing her Grandma had said stood out against the rest, and the puzzle pieces of her life started to snap together.

  “You bound me?” Getting up from the table Kaylee began to pace around the kitchen, every few seconds looking back at her grandma. “The voices, the colors I saw, feeling other people’s feelings, and seeing the animals around people? That’s what you bound me from.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement. Looking at her grandma, she knew it was all true. “The tea, the tea you’re still giving me today and the blessing you said you were giving me, it wasn’t any of that, was it?” Kaylee accused.

  “Yes.”

  “How dare you!” Kaylee barked. “It’s because of you and my mother that I’ve felt defective my entire life. Tell me, Grandmother, you took the colors, animals, and feelings away, but why not the voices? Leaving just a little to bury the knife in my back?” Kaylee wasn’t anywhere close to being done. She walked back to the table placing her hands on it, so she was eye level once again with her grandma and questioned.

  “Let’s talk about my mother. Why isn’t she here ‘preparing’ me? If she could force you to bind me, why isn’t she here now or couldn’t she be bothered?”

  “She will be here for your Ostara ceremony, along with your father, aunts, uncles, and cousins. The McClane family must come together to welcome your magic. Otherwise, it will be tempted to go to the dark side. Kaylee, you need to tell me about the voices. I know you’re mad right now, but it’s important. Nothing should have been able to get through the spell I placed on the tea. You should not have seen or heard anything from the magic realm.”

  “Well, I hate to disappoint you, but your spell didn’t work. Every night for the past three weeks, a voice consumes my sleeping hours, promising me things, wanting me to go him. I say no, but he still comes.

  “Now, explain what you just said. What family? I don’t have aunts, uncles, or cousins. The only family I have is you, Grandpa, Mom, and my father. Who are these people you’re talking about?”

  “Kaylee your mother decided with your magic being so powerful at a young age, it was too dangerous to allow anyone else to interact with you. Since we were binding you, and the others have never been bound, you would have seen and questioned things she didn’t want to answer.”

  That sounded like her mother. The woman was selfish and a bitch. All this talk of magic made her remember something, so since her grandma was in such a talkative mood.

  “What’s up with Lucas and why do I get the feeling you and Grandpa want me to stay away from him?”

  “Lucas is the McClane family Guardian. He is a Were, or he was at birth.” Her Grandma Ruth sighed, being put out by answering this particular question. “He’s now Were and Vampire mixed. Your grandpa and I feel a mating with you and Lucas wouldn’t have good results. Had he not been turned by the Vampires while he was in New Orleans, we would not object to the mating or you being around him. We knew it was a risk bringing you here while he was close, but it was a risk we had to take.

  “The powers you have attracted him even more. We knew this when you came to stay here although, the last three weeks, his avoidance of you has been completely his doing. I don’t believe in messing with Fate, only nudging it a bit.

  “Now, listen, Kaylee, we have more important things to discuss besides you and Lucas and what may or may not happen,” Grandma said, tapping on the book. Kaylee thought what they were discussing already was pretty damn important, so she just raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest, standing there like a five-year-old not getting their way.

  “This is the McClane family grimoire,” Grandma Ruth said as if the statement was the most important one Kaylee would never hear. She even had a gleam in her eye and a smile on her face. Kaylee wasn’t in the mood to smile back.

  “A grim what?” Kaylee asked.

  “Don’t you watch television or read?” Grandma Ruth had lost her smile and the gleam in her eye was gone. “It’s a grimoire, the book which holds all the family spells, potions, and rituals.” When Kaylee didn't look impressed or question her, she barked, “Our family has possessed this since the fifteen hundreds. Many wise and noble witches have held it in their hands. Every witch who had the book in their possession has added to it year after year. Now it belongs to you, and you will do the same.”

  “Hold up! Did you say potion? As in hocus pocus? Where the hell is the black caldron then or my broom? Do I get one of those, too?” Kaylee asked sarcastically.

  “Listen to me, little girl, this is serious, it’s your future. Every page in this book is powerful and in the wrong hands, could be devastating. You're about to turn twenty-five. It’s time to grow up and stop acting like a child.”

  “Fine, you’re a witch, so am I, and I have a family I didn’t even know about, and in a couple of days, we’ll have a ceremony which will bring forth my magical abilities. Is there anything else? Oh, wait don’t answer that because there already is. You lied to me, my own mother lied to me. I told you about the things I saw and heard, the things my magic brought me, and you said it was my imagination. You fed me tea and made me forget. If that wasn’t enough, you decided there w
as something wrong with the attraction I felt toward Lucas, and you interfered again, all because of my supposed magic.

  “I don’t want to hear anything else.” Kaylee got up and grabbed her coat. “Right now, I don’t even want to look at you, and you better get on the phone or use your witchy powers, whichever works best, and tell my mother to stay the hell away, because I’ll slap her if I see her anytime soon.”

  Kaylee didn’t look back; she opened and slammed the door and ran. Ran for the one place she knew would allow her to wrap her head around all of what her grandma had just told her. The tears were streaming down her face, causing her steps to falter several times. They had lied to her, all of them.

  Kaylee had never felt short of breath, but this time… this time she felt as if she’d been running for miles. She was so pissed, it was taking all she could do not to hyperventilate.

  Magic powers, spells, potions, and becoming the strongest witch in the history of our family. But this wasn’t anything out of the norm, according to Ruth. Once she got to the edge of the pathway, Kaylee decided to take the trail around the backside of the pond. When she was younger, she’d always loved sitting on the bench there to clear her thoughts and fish with her Grandad.

  She slowed to a fast walk, and things started piling up in her mind. She hadn’t had the tea the night before. She could hear things coming from all over the woods and weird noises coming from the pond. The trees looked much greener, the sky bluer, and it was like nature was once again speaking to her. She hadn’t felt or seen things like this since she was a little girl. Had Ruth released her from the bind or were her powers this strong now because she didn’t drink the tea? She’d never had these feelings before.