“Alexandria wants to warn you that you’re in danger around her,” Devon finishes for me.
Leave it to Devon not to understand the art of being subtle.
“Danger?” Saidie frowns. “What kind of danger?”
“Alex has been put on a supernatural hit list,” Morgan pipes in. “She’s special and because people are afraid of what she and her brother might eventually become, they want them dead.”
I wince. Morgan is definitely picking up bad habits from Devon.
He flashes me a grin.
“What are you talking about?” Saidie frowns.
“Just what I said, she’s been put on a supernatural hit list,” Morgan tells her.
“Supernatural?”
“Morgan’s right.” I make myself stop wringing my hands. “I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. As long as I’m breathing, they’ll never leave me alone. Every second you’re with me, you’re in danger.”
“How are you different?” Saidie asks curiously.
“I inherited certain gifts from my mother’s family,” I tell her cautiously.
“Gifts?” she prompts.
I hesitate.
This is what you wanted, Bess, Morgan reminds me.
I know, I sigh. They are going to think I’m more insane than I already am.
Well, here goes nothing.
“Magical gifts.”
“Magical?”
“There’s more. I also carry the lupine gene in my blood.”
“Wait,” Saidie looks puzzled. “Do you mean like werewolves?”
“Yeah, I mean werewolves.”
“You could actually turn into a werewolf?” Connor cracks a smile. “Awesome.”
“Only you would think it’s cool.” I roll my eyes at him.
“You’re really serious, aren’t you?” Saidie asks me quietly.
“Yeah,” I said, watching with a sick feeling as her face goes from confused to wary. “Trackers found us. If it hadn’t been for Devon and my uncle, they would’ve killed me.”
“Trackers?”
I hear Connor ask the question, but can’t take my eyes off Saidie. Her eyes are going wide, fear making them round. I’m going to lose her.
“Werecats,” Devon supplies, his head tilted. I see out of the corner of my eye that he too is watching Saidie, a curious expression on his face.
“They were panthers, but they changed back to their human form when they died,” I explain absently. All I want right now is my bed and my bear and then I want to curl up into a ball and cry my eyes out. I really am going to lose my best friend. How can I expect her to accept this when I still can’t? Crap, crap and crap.
“Did you see them change?” Connor frowns.
“Yes,” I close my eyes at the remembered horror. “It was awful.”
“I’ll bet,” he agrees. “How did Devon and your uncle save you?”
I hesitate, looking Devon. It really isn’t my secret to tell. Morgan agreed to this, but Devon hadn’t.
“It matters little to me what any of them think,” Devon shrugs.
Does he always have to be so rude? Sighing, I nod and then pause, catching sight of Connor. His violet eyes are dilated and unfocused.
“Connor?”
“Totally cool,” he murmurs. “Here I was all worried about you and you have some of the best bodyguards imaginable.”
Devon and Morgan’s attention snap to him. I watched Devon’s face slide back into its usual stone mask.
“You’re not the only ones keeping secrets,” Connor laughs.
“Apparently,” comes Devon’s clipped reply.
“Hey, I’m cool with it as long as nobody starts looking at me like I’m lunch.”
Devon frowns at him, a perplexed look crossing his face for the barest hint of a second. It’s a look he gives Connor regularly.
“Loosen up, old man,” Connor grins at him. “My secret’s harmless.”
“I know,” Devon tells him.
“So, what can you like read minds or something?”
“Or something,” Devon agrees.
“Way cool.”
WHAT?! He can read minds? So very, very not good.
His green gaze slides to me and he actually laughs.
I blush violently from head to toe. Can’t help it.
“Care to clue the rest of us in?” Morgan asks, irritated. He’s picking up on some of my sudden irritation at being caught unawares by Devon’s so called mind reading skills. Seriously, if he knew half the stuff . . . .DON’T THINK ABOUT IT!
“I have the sight.”
“The sight?”
“No, man. The. Sight. It’s something I inherited from my Gran, part of our Celtic heritage or something. I see things, mostly in dreams, but sometimes when I’m awake too. I knew Alex was in some kind of trouble, but I just didn’t know what exactly. I tried to keep a close watch on her when I could. I kept dreaming about amber and red rimmed black eyes.”
My own eyes widen and I gasp. No Freakin Way.
“If you are truly a Wise One, or Seer as some call them, then why did you not detect me before now?” Devon asks.
“Hey, I’m still new at all this,” he admits with a shrug. “I didn’t start having dreams or whatever until I met you guys.”
“Or until you met Alex?” Devon asks.
“Who knows? I met all you guys the same day.”
Devon frowns at me thoughtfully. “Could her awakening energy flow have triggered his gift?”
Connor shrugs. “But I do have a theory, sorta.”
“Theory?” Devon frowns.
“Yeah. I keep thinking about how weird it was that we all just sort of clicked that first day, ya know? Usually when you meet someone new there’s awkward conversation and it takes time to get to know people, but not with you guys. It was natural, instinct maybe. I don’t even hang out with half my old friends anymore. I think maybe it’s because of Alex.”
“Me?” I ask, startled.
“Yeah, what if your . . . magic pulled the people you needed to you? We all have some kind of weird connection, have since that first day. I think it’s you.”
“You could be onto something there,” Devon nods thoughtfully. “You must be learning to control your visions since you were able to force one earlier.”
“Not really,” Connor sighs. “I think you’re right about Alex being some kind of catalyst, though. The visions,” I see him wince at the word, “seem to get stronger when she’s around. It’s like I can focus better or something when she’s near.”
I feel just a tad bit dazed. Then my gaze catches sight of Saidie. She looks so small and quiet, sitting there in the corner—her face pensive, afraid. That familiar gut wrenching feeling hits me again. It’s going to hurt to lose her. What am I going to do?
Morgan puts an arm around me and pulls me close, offering what comfort he can. I smile gratefully up at him.
Now that got Saidie’s attention. She arches a brow in question.
I roll my eyes at her. “No.”
Morgan looks at us curiously. “Did I miss a question?”
Saidie shakes her head and focuses her attention on Morgan and Devon. “What are you two?” she asks bluntly.
Devon and Morgan sigh together. Neither of them wants to do a tell-all exposé.
I catch a hint of Morgan’s thoughts. Oh no he didn’t.
“Don’t you dare show them,” I warn him. “Just tell them.”
“Ah, Bess, there’s no fun in that,” he pouts.
I glare.
He sighs dramatically. “Fine. I’m a shifter, a wolf specifically and no, we absolutely hate the word werewolf. Devon’s a cursed Gypsy that turns into a man eating monster.”
There’s no screaming, no shouting, no nothing. Total and utter silence greets Morgan’s bald statement.
Then I see Devon’s face. His eyes are huge, unbelieving. He stares holes into Saidie. She looks more than a little shell-shocked, something I can understand.
She shakes her head at me.
Devon hisses.
That’s when it all goes to hell.
Chapter 28
It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen some pretty scary stuff since my mom’s death. We all cringe away from Devon. His eyes bleed to black, red fire blazing to life. His face turns savage, no longer quite human. The beast that hides behind his cloak of humanity takes control. His hate filled eyes lock onto Saidie.
“Devon, get a grip,” Morgan tries to calm him.
Devon snarls at him, a guttural sound.
Morgan and I move to stand in front of Saidie. What made Devon flip out so fast? He usually has more control over himself than this.
“To get to her you would have to go through me and Alex,” Morgan says softly. Devon’s eyes are glowing, the red rings becoming more prominent as his power rolls off of him and crashed into Morgan, knocking him off his feet.
I gasp as Devon’s power flows through me, calls to me. This wasn’t anything like I’d ever felt before. This was different. It felt familiar, like it was . . . mine.
“You don’t know what she is,” Devon’s enraged cry startles me back to the scene at hand.
“Just what is she?” Connor interrupts, leaning forward, fascinated.
“She is a necromancer,” Devon snarls.
“NO!” Saidie shakes her head in denial.
“A necromancer has dominion over all forms of the dead,” Devon’s accent is heavy and thick with rage. “As a rule among my people they are killed on sight, some even in their cradles. I have seen what their kind are capable of. That is why she has to die.”
“Devon you can’t kill her,” I tell him softly.
“You don’t understand what they did to my brother!”
“Your brother?” I ask. He’d told me his brother had been killed by the people who killed his parents.
“They sold my brother to a necromancer to pay a part of the debt they owed. She did unspeakable things to him before I found him. I sacrificed so much, but I couldn’t save him from her and he died at her hands.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“You have to let me kill her before she comes into her full power or she could kill us all.”
“Devon, none of us are dead,” Connor tells him reasonably. “You just said they only have dominion over the dead, so how can she hurt us?”
“They are evil, more so than even I am. Their magic is black, blacker than anything I’ve ever seen. She won’t be able to help herself. Its better we end it now, before she can harm us,” he cries, his beast pulsing out from his eyes. They glow with hatred and hunger.
“Nobody is killing anybody,” Connor barks. “If we can accept you, then you sure as certain can accept Saidie.”
“You do not understand,” Devon howls in frustration. “You have not seen what they can do, what they are capable of.”
“I understand, Devon,” I tell him, “but you can’t kill her.” There is steel in my voice this time and I can feel it pulse out and into him. His eyes dilate with the force of my own power flowing into him for once and he seems to calm a bit.
“No one is going to let me do what must be done.” His voice is flat. “I will reserve judgment until I am proven right and you let me kill her.”
“That’s big of you,” Connor says sarcastically.
Devon snarls at him, showing a mouth full of very sharp teeth, but he sits down in the corner and doesn’t say anything else, just glares hatefully at us.
“Any more dramatic secrets?” Connor’s voice was cautious.
No. Thank God.
Devon is staring through me, as if he can actually see Saidie behind me. A look of intense concentration is on his face. Is he trying to read her mind? Huh. That could be either a good thing or a very bad thing right now, depending on what’s going on in her head.
“Saidie, are you okay?” I turn to look at her. She wears my familiar wide eyed look of horror.
“I never believed any of it,” she whispers. “I thought it was all just some crazy story my Gran made up when I was little.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
She takes a shaky breath and peaked around my knees at Devon. He glares at her.
“No, not yet.”
I can so relate.
“So, how old are you anyway?” Connor leans back and stretches out.
“Does it matter?” Devon snaps.
“Nope, just curious.”
Does nothing ever faze Connor, I wonder.
“I am over three hundred years old,” Devon answers at last.
It never fails to amaze me that I have the hots for a guy that is ancient almost. He snorts and I glare. Stay out of my head, I think at him.
Make me, he says, a hint of warmth coming back into face.
“So what did Morgan mean, man eating beast?” Connor looks at Devon like’s he a new toy he’s gotten for Christmas. The boy has to be nearly as insane as me if he doesn’t think all this is weird and impossibly crazy.
“I am Romani, Gypsy,” he says. “My family owed a blood debt and when my mother refused to pay it, she was killed along with everyone but me. Since I wouldn’t kill for them, they cursed me instead and I turn into a beast of sorts that enjoys killing. I refused to take a life and they made sure that I’d spend eternity doing just that.”
“So you have to kill to satisfy the curse?”
“No,” he says, “but the beast enjoys it and so do I. I could rip you all to shreds with the exception of Alexandria and never blink.”
“Dude.” Connor stares at him wide-eyed after that little speech.
“Dude?” a ghost of a smile graces Devon’s face. I think he actually likes Connor. He pretends cold indifference most of the time, but Connor seems to strike a chord in him that no one else does. It’s not often someone can make him smile. Then again, it’s hard not to smile around Connor.
“Deal with modern language, old man. So how about you, Morgan?” Connor turns his attention to Morgan. “You’re a werewolf?”
“Shifter,” Morgan corrected.
“Can you only turn when the moon is full?” Connor asks, his voice full of excitement. Leave it to Connor to think hanging out with monsters is the coolest thing in the world.
“Myth,” he replies. “We can shift pretty much anytime we want. Young shifters, though, are ruled by our lady the moon in that they are forced to shift the first night of the full moon. It’s not something we can control.”
“How young are you?”
“I’ve been shifting for over a year,” he says. “And yes, the moon still forces me to shift.” He gives us all a martyred look.
I know Connor is trying to shift the focus off Saidie and I’m grateful. Today pretty much blew up in my face. Staring into Devon’s stony face, I realize something. I’m selfish. I did this to us. Me. I didn’t think about anyone else when I forced this. I owe him so much and all I’d managed to do was cause him pain. I’d been so worried about what everyone would think of me, I neglected to consider their reactions to Devon or even Morgan.
What had I cost Devon and Morgan today? Devon glares holes into Saidie. He’s given up a lot today. He hides behind his masks and I forced him to take it off, to show everyone what he is. I hadn’t planned on the showing part, but still, this is my fault. I’d cost him what little normalcy he’s managed to gain.
Do I royally suck or what?
“I’m sorry, Devon,” I tell him and sit down beside him.
“This is not your fault, Alexandria. How could you have known the spawn of Satan was amongst us?”
Ouch, I wince, sneaking a glance at Saidie.
Her gray eyes are narrowed and full of fire. She glares at Devon just as fiercely as he does her. Yup, she’s definitely getting her gumption back. Good for her. I grin at the sight. Saidie might be short and as delicate looking as a porcelain doll, but when she gets good and mad, she’s something to see.
“And you will do what, little girl?” he taunts, standing himself.
She smiles ever so sweetly at him.
Devon is instantly on his guard. It’s a smile we all recognized.
“I’ll put you on Facebook.”
“What is this . . . Facebook?” he frowns.
“It’s an online community where people have their own web pages so they can keep in touch with family and friends,” Connor grins, realizing where Saidie is going with this.
“I’ll have your page live within the hour announcing to everyone that you’re single and looking to hook up. Then I’ll post the link on the school bulletin board.”
“Sadie, that is so very wrong on so many levels,” I laugh, secretly threatening to throttle her if she dares to try it.
“This is a bad thing, yes?” Devon asks.
“Most guys wouldn’t think so,” Connor chuckles at Devon’s obvious confusion.
“What Saidie is trying to say is she’s gonna tell everybody that you’re looking for a girlfriend,” I explain, trying so hard not to laugh. “You’ll be bombarded from all sides in a matter of minutes of her putting the link to your new website on the school bulletin board. People can access the internet from their phones these days, ya know? God knows, Devon, most of the girls at school would do just about anything for you to ask them out.”
He looks appalled.
“You would not dare to do this vile thing.”
“Try me!”
“Devon, you know yourself that our Saidie never makes idle threats,” Connor reminds him with a wicked smile.
Devon and Saidie glare at each other, neither willing to back down from their staring contest.
Morgan puts an end to it by stepping between them. “I think we’ve all had enough for one day. We’ve got a lot to think about and decisions to make. We should all just go home.”
And that is that.
I might very well have ruined everything.
Chapter 29
Why in God’s name did I do it? How stupid can I be? I am going to be all alone at the Masquerade a dance I hadn’t even wanted to go to in the first place—with Tom Wallace. Every time he looks at me I usually bolt for the nearest exit. Now I am going to have to spend the next several hours with him.
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