We divided into teams, Erik with me and Ed with Michael and the game began. It would have looked like a mere blur of tanned skin and various shades of fur to the human eye. Luckily enough, there never were any spectators that showed up unannounced behind my house. Even the rest of the tribe stayed away from us when we played. In an effort to be supportive, my grandfather only came to watch the one time. He stayed merely minutes before he announced in a cross voice, “you give me migraines,” then he left to go watch something less strenuous on television, never to return to the basketball goal and cheer for anyone ever again.
The first few moments of the game went fine until suddenly out of nowhere the weird feeling struck again. Erik hadn’t noticed me freeze in that second and had sent the ball hurtling toward me.
It smacked me directly in the face and sent me flying in the air. I landed on the pavement out by the side of the house.
“Oh, crap!” Erik’s tan face looked ashen when I finally managed to stare up at him, “Are you all right? I didn’t mean to hit you! I’m so sorry!”
I rubbed my face with my palms, knowing the red imprint the ball had made on my face had faded nearly as quickly as it had appeared. Other than the initial sting and shock of the “guaranteed toughest ball” making contact, I was fine—with the exception that that weird feeling still hadn’t left. It was too bad. I let out a deep breath. I’d really hoped that hit would have knocked it right out of me, but it hadn’t.
“Dude, you’d better start talking to me, before I go get your grandpa and drag him over here. You don’t want him to make you talk, do you?” Erik’s face was creased with worry. Three other faces with matching expressions hovered in a half-circle around me.
“Yeah. I’m fine. You just caught me off-guard.” I fought to plaster a smile on my face, but I could tell none of them believed it.
“We never catch you off-guard,” Michael stated in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Something happened. You froze,” the ever-vigilant referee, Tommy, spoke, backing up his cousin.
I wasn’t going to be able to keep much from them. As pack mates, we were as tuned in to one another’s feelings as we could possibly be. If something were wrong with a single member, the rest of us would know something was amiss.
“I just have this weird feeling. It feels like I’m forgetting to do something.”
“Yeah, I do that sometimes,” Tommy conceded. “Mine normally involves homework, though.”
“I don’t think mine has anything to do with school.” The feeling kept pulling at me and suddenly I realized it wasn’t something I had forgotten, but rather someplace I needed to be. Something I needed to see—alone. “I think I’m going to sit the rest of this one out and take a run to clear my head.”
“We’ll go, too.” The offer came easily and four heads nodded in unison, happy enough to give up the game in order to help.
“No, I’m fine to go by myself. Really.” I hoped I sounded convincing enough. The four boys stared at me, but didn’t push any further. After all, I was their leader and they would respect what I chose to do, whether they agreed with me or not.
“You’ll let us know if you need us, right?” Erik looked the least happy of the bunch.
“Yes,” I promised solemnly, which eased the look of worry on his face.
“You know,” Erik said casually, looking at the ground as if something there had suddenly gotten his attention. “I had a strange feeling like that once—right before Penny and I started going out.”
“I doubt this has anything to do with that,” I grumbled, which seemed to amuse the four other boys enough that they forgot their worry. They grinned at me. Everyone knew there was one girl in particular who had her sights set on me, but Hannah wasn’t meant to be my other half. Unfortunately, I was the only one convinced of that.
“You watch. It’ll be about a girl,” I heard Erik predict as I shifted and ran toward the canopy of trees at the edge of the forest.
I stopped in the shadows for a moment and listened to them laugh as the game resumed, now with no referee. Within seconds, a loud pop cracked through the air. The “guaranteed toughest ball” had been demolished.
I smirked, amused at the complaints being hurtled at the flattened ball, then I melted deeper into the forest, away from the voices, into the quiet peace the woods offered. Though what I actually wanted was to walk and soak up the soothing sounds around me, the pull to run and find the source of what was consuming me was overwhelming. I ran instinctively, moving toward whatever pulled me.
The branches of the trees shifted, clearing the way for the black wolf who moved as if our very life depended on it. Nature always helped as it realized the Keepers existed to protect Mother Nature and her inhabitants, both large and small. Roots shifted, limbs bent out of the way and moss stretched to soften the path while I ran swiftly across the forest floor.
I arrived at the edge of the underbrush within moments, my wolf huffing in short breaths. My heart was pounding more from adrenaline than exertion. This was what I was meant to see. It was here—I was sure of it. I stepped close to the clearing of the trees at the back yard of the old house, noticing a car in the driveway. I shifted back to human. It wouldn’t do to be seen as a giant black wolf.
I watched as a willowy, blonde-haired woman appeared from behind the car’s open trunk, a box of what appeared to be cleaning supplies in her arms. Normally, I would have introduced myself and offered to carry the box inside for her. After all, the old two-story house was one of the closest places that the reservation could consider a “neighbor,” and my father and grandfather had deeply instilled in me the values of kindness and friendship. But the strange feeling kept me frozen in place, standing just at the edge of the forest.
I stood straight and proud, folding my arms over my chest. “Classic Indian pose” was what the other guys called it. Whatever I was meant to see here, would not see me a coward, unless of course, they had magic and could hear my heart pounding through my crossed arms.
Some slight movement caught my attention in the upstairs window. The curtain shifted just slightly as a shadow moved past. Whatever I was to find was in that room. It was close…
Then the curtain was brushed away and I realized that it was a someone that I was meant to see.
I’ll never tell Erik he was right, was the single thought that flitted through my head as the girl with spiraling blonde curls looked out the window. She didn’t see me right away, so I took that extra minute to memorize her heart-shaped face and her full lips that were turned the slightest bit down. The expression on her face looked sad, but determined somehow. What had caused that look? I wondered. Then, I caught myself wondering what it would look like when she smiled.
Then I was spotted and the expression on the girl’s face changed completely. She stared back at me, her eyes wide. A second later, she raised her hand and pressed it to the glass in a small gesture of greeting that I didn’t return. I simply stood there and watched her, not daring to move a muscle.
Show no fear. My grandfather’s voice echoed in my head. It was the first thing he’d taught me when I learned to hunt as a Keeper. An odd lesson to be thinking of now to be sure, as I stared up at her. Do not fear what is unknown unless your instincts tell you otherwise. Adam, you must always…always trust your instincts.
The advice had seemed sound at the time it was given, but now I wasn’t sure whether or not I could trust my grandfather’s judgment since my body was giving some extremely mixed signals. While my head was telling me that as a Keeper, I was the strongest creature in the forest. There wasn’t anything my wolf couldn’t handle—this girl included. But my heart was beating so hard right now, I was certain it was going to pound its way right out of my chest.
The sensation was new. Never had my head and my heart been so far out of line with each other. So here I stood with a feeling that was unlike anything I had ever felt before, wondering which part I should trust—my head or my heart.
As
if he wondered what was causing me so much distress, I felt my wolf push toward the surface, wanting to see what was happening. I took a deep breath, and then another, and he melted away, seemingly happy enough that I had this situation under control. It wouldn’t do to shift into a wolf right now—not while she was watching. Had she been one of my tribe, it wouldn’t have been a problem, but this girl was an outsider—a stranger who didn’t know of the secrets kept in this forest.
Then the girl moved, turning to talk to someone else in the room. The second her back was to the window, I made my move, leaping back into the welcoming shadows of the forest, back to safety. Once I knew I was hidden from view, I turned back, carefully looking between the branches of the underbrush to gaze back up at the window. The girl wasn’t there now, apparently thinking me gone.
A run would help, I decided, turning to leave. That would clear my head. Once I was away from this place—and from her—I’d be able to figure out what all of this meant.
I walked a few yards deeper into the forest, then stopped to transform back into my wolf. I forced myself to shift slowly so that I could concentrate only on him and nothing else. I felt my wolf stir instantly, surging toward the surface with a soft brush of fur that seemed to run along my bones, pushing outward to my skin.
Instantly, I felt calmer and more centered and seconds later, I sat on the forest floor as a wolf, all visible traces of the human I’d been were gone. I took off, running as fast as my legs could carry me with no destination in mind. Anywhere in the forest, away from civilization was good enough for me. My thoughts raced with me, replaying the last few moments with the girl at the window. Whoever she was, it seemed we were linked in some strange way.
I caught myself wondering what she would have said, had I knocked on her door and introduced myself—instead of standing there, staring at her.
I’ll never know, because I’m an idiot, I thought. My wolf huffed, a quick snort of sorts that let me know he agreed with me. Had I let him take the lead, he would have had no problem padding right up on the front porch to see what the problem was. It was his job, he reminded me, to protect the forest and everything in and around it. And that, he assured me, included her.
Yeah, then we would have scared her and her family to death. Great way to welcome someone to the neighborhood. Besides, I reminded myself, there is no breaking the first rule—never be seen as a Keeper. We have plenty of time to figure out who she is.
I ran until the sun faded behind the trees. When darkness fell, I headed back home. It was no surprise to find Erik waiting for me on the steps of my front porch, waiting.
“Everything all right?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, everything’s good.”
He waited for a second as if he was trying to decide whether or not to believe me.
“Seriously. I’m fine.”
Finally, he nodded. “I’ll take your word for it. But just so you know, if you do that again, we’re coming with you. Doesn’t matter that you’re the leader. We’re Pack and we stick together. You aren’t ditching us next time.”
“Deal.”
“It was a girl, wasn’t it.” It wasn’t a question. And I could hear the tone in his voice as clearly as if he’d said “I told you so.”
When I didn’t answer, I saw moonlight glint off his teeth, proof that he was grinning. “You’ll come around, man. It isn’t as bad as you’re letting on. Personally, I think that’s a perk of being a Keeper, knowing who you’re destined to be with.”
I answered him with silence, which really amused him. He laughed. “All right. No more of that, I guess. Let’s head to the bonfire.”
He hopped up off the step and I followed him down the dirt path to the center of the Res where the faint scent of smoke met my nose. Bonfire was too strong of a word. There wasn’t any flame in the center of the stone ring. Ed, Michael, and Tommy were sitting on the benches surrounding it, watching.
“Why didn’t you guys start the fire? It’s not even going,” Erik asked, leaning over to inspect the small pile of smoldering sticks.
“We didn’t want to take the fun out of you starting it,” Ed replied, grinning. “You started it…well; you sort of started it and then walked off to wait for Adam. We just watched it to make sure it didn’t get out of hand while you were gone.”
“Hmph.” It was no secret Erik couldn’t start a fire, though it was a favorite thing to tease him over.
“Here, let me do it,” I said, bumping his shoulder. I wouldn’t join in with the others and laugh at his firemaking abilities this time. After all, he had been the one sitting in the dark waiting for me—even if he was sniffing at something that wasn’t his business.
Happy to be rid of the task, Erik plopped down on the bench next to Ed while I bent down and rearranged the pile of sticks, making sure to place the smaller, finer bits of wood shavings beneath to catch. Ed tossed me a lighter and I flicked it and slowly lit the small bits. I bent lower to blow on the flame.
Once the fire came to life, I propped a few larger sticks on it, got up, and sat on the bench opposite Michael.
“You missed a good game,” he told me, giving me a knowing look. “Tommy and I beat them easy. They didn’t have a chance.”
Naturally, this started an all-out war with Ed and Erik, who tried to interrupt Michael’s proud announcement to say that it had been his fault the ball had busted and that he hadn’t played fair. The ball they’d used afterward didn’t bounce right.
Coming to the aid of his cousin, Tommy joined in the fray and I sat and listened to them, watching the flames dance in the ring before us, casting shadows against the rocks.
“Adam, tell Erik that I don’t have to pay for the next ball,” Michael complained. “That one had a warranty. You heard him say so.”
I found this really funny and laughed, looking up from the fire. “There’s no way the company is going to replace it when it had your teeth marks in it,” I told him. He frowned.
“Like Ed said earlier, fang marks will void the warranty,” Erik insisted. “Besides, what are you going to do? Call them up and say, ‘Sorry, I bit your ball. Could you please send me a new one?’”
Michael looked as if he was considering such a scenario, which caused them all to laugh. Then, he grinned. “All right. I’ll buy the next one.”
Then, it happened. I turned to pick up another stick and noticed the fire. The face of the girl I had seen earlier was etched in the flame. An exact likeness of her. I dropped the chunk of wood I had picked up and stared, open-mouthed for a second, before I tensed, ready to shift. She moved from the fire, as if she had only been a ghost hovering there for warmth. She looked as shocked as I felt, her eyes wide. Then, as if she decided that none of this was real, a curious look replaced the stunned one and she came forward the slightest bit as if she wanted to get a better look at me.
I felt my wolf stir, ready. My ears picked up bits of the conversation from my brothers, something about the school field trip, proof that none of them was seeing this girl in the fire, but all the while my eyes never left her face.
Now I knew there was a reason I felt pulled to her—one other than the one Erik had suggested. This girl held magic of some kind—the likes of which I’d never seen before. She took a step forward and lifted her hand, as if she decided to reach for me. Then, she dropped it and she smiled. It wasn’t a happy smile, but a sort of polite one, as if she’d changed her mind about something.
Then she melted back into the fire.
Instead of reaching back down for the wood, I leaned to my opposite side, picked up the pail, and tossed water on the fire. Immediately, the flame squelched out and died.
While the girl may not have gotten my brothers’ attention, the sudden darkness did.
“What’s up?” Erik asked.
I took a stick and stirred the ashes before dumping more water on for good measure. Then, I turned to my pack. “My wolf says it’s time for another run. Wanna join me?”
Ther
e wasn’t any need to ask twice. Within seconds, the darkness glittered with the magic of five Keepers as we turned to our wolves. Erik was the last to shift, his head cocked to the side as if he was trying to figure out why thinking about a girl had caused me to act in such a way.
Maybe later I’ll tell you about her, bro, I thought, once I figure it out for myself what she is and what exactly I’m supposed to do about it.
My bones twisted and fur pushed its way along my skin. Then, I leaned my head back and howled, running for the trees with my pack.
Chapter 2
The weekend flew by, thankfully without me having any other urges to run to the house at the edge of the woods. But even though my body didn’t wander over, my mind did—more than a thousand times, as I tried to figure out what connection the girl and I had.
Monday morning came and I heard Erik’s motorcycle pull into the driveway, so I grabbed my book bag and headed out the door.
“Morning, Adam,” Penny, Erik’s girlfriend smiled, sitting on the back of the bike.
“Morning,” I answered, before turning my attention to Erik. I grinned. “Am I to assume that I’m taking everyone else to school today?”
“Yup. I’ll take Penny so they’ll have plenty of room,” he said, giving me a goofy grin.
“I don’t know why you bother to ask him that, you know they’re going to ride together,” Ed remarked, coming around the side of the house with Tommy and Michael.
“Can’t blame him,” Tommy said. “I’d rather have a girl hanging onto me on a motorcycle than you, too.”
Ed rolled his eyes.
The weird feeling came back then and I realized that the girl was leaving her house, going down the dirt driveway toward the road.
“Are we ready?” I asked, suddenly anxious to get to school. Common sense told me that was where she was headed.
Erik nodded. “See you there.” He backed his motorcycle out of the driveway while the rest of the pack piled into my Jeep, books and bags flying everywhere. Once everyone buckled in, I started the engine and pulled out, following Erik down the road.
The Keeper Saga: Wynter's War, Charmed, and The One (The Boxed Set Book 2) Page 21