True of Blood (Witch Fairy Series)

by Lamer, Bonnie

  Secrets, secrets, secrets. I am so tired of secrets. “Last night you said you would teach me Witch magic. Was that a lie?”

  “No. I will teach you if you insist upon it but I was hoping to discourage you from it until you have more control.”

  I hang my head. I am so overwhelmed that it’s taking great effort to remain standing up. “Am I going to destroy the world like the prophecy says?”

  Kallen takes two steps towards me and folds me into his arms and I let him. “No, you are not. I hold no stock in prophecies and neither should you. You are going to learn how to control your magic and we will bind Maurelle and Olwyn’s magic and you will be able to return to your old life away from Fairies and gateways and other realms.”

  That’s the first time he’s talked about what would happen after I no longer need him to teach me. “What will you do?” I ask still in his embrace.

  “Perhaps I shall go into Denver and become a bartender. I have been told that I am handsome enough to make excellent tips.”

  I can’t help but laugh and I finally wrap my arms around his back. “Thank you,” I murmur into his jacket. It feels really good to be in his arms like this. So good that it can make me forgot about a lot of things, which is what I blame for what I say next. “Kallen, will you kiss me?”

  He leans back and takes my face between his large hands and searches it to determine if I am serious or not. Right now, I am. I don’t know if I will be if he doesn’t hurry up and kiss me sooner as opposed to later, though. As if reading my mind, he dips his head and his lips are on mine. This isn’t the gentle kiss from the other night, this is a kiss full of need and passion and hunger. I open my mouth to him and his tongue delves into its depths and I respond in kind. He wraps his arms back around my waist and lifts me so he doesn’t have to lean over so far and I feel my back pressed against the rock we had slept against and his mouth never leaves mine. I wind my arms around his neck and pull him closer not wanting this kiss to end. This kiss is keeping reality at bay and that’s what I need right now.

  So I can’t even begin to tell you how disappointed I am when Kallen abruptly stops kissing me, swears under his breath, lowers me to the ground and turns around. I’m about to make a cutting remark about him only wanting someone who is full-blooded Fairy when I see why he stopped kissing me. About fifty feet from us and looking this way with hunger in his eyes is one of the biggest grizzly bears I have ever seen. Okay, granted I haven’t seen that many because they are almost extinct in Colorado, but still. It’s big.

  “Shouldn’t it be hibernating right now?”

  Kallen looks at me over his shoulder with one raised brow. “Would you care to explain that to him?”

  I make a face at him and he laughs and turns back around. “I am going to give him a little encouragement to be on his way. Stay here.”

  “Stay here? Where are you going?” What, does he suddenly know how to wrestle bears now? “It’s a grizzly bear, Kallen. He’s probably as tall as you when he stands on his hind legs and he outweighs you by probably five or six hundred pounds.”

  Kallen smiles at me over his shoulder as he keeps walking towards the bear. “True, but he does not have magic.”

  As much as I think he’s being stupid, I can’t help but be curious how he will make a hungry bear leave us alone. Kallen stops walking when he’s about ten feet away from it. The grizzly stands on its hind legs and lets out a roar but Kallen doesn’t even flinch. And then just as he did when he and I had our snow fight, he causes snow to start falling from the trees onto the bear. A lot of snow. The bear goes down on all fours and starts shaking its fur to try to rid himself of it. He seems to have forgotten about Kallen as more and more snow falls on him. Finally, as if he realizes he’s not wanted, the grizzly turns around and lumbers away. I can’t help but be impressed that Kallen hadn’t used any harmful magic against it.

  “What would you have done if he attacked you?” I ask when he’s close enough to hear me.

  Kallen shrugs. “I guess we will find out if he comes back hungry for Fairies.”

  He keeps walking towards me and I want to back up but my back is still flat against the rock. When he’s right in front of me, he puts his hands on either side of my head and leans towards me. “Now, about that kiss,” he says with a sexy grin.

  I quickly dart under his arm and put distance between us. “The other night you said you couldn’t let anything happen between us. How come you’ve changed your mind?”

  Kallen stands up and disappointment is plain on his face as he looks at me with those intense green eyes that make me want to kiss him again. So, I back up another couple of steps. “Well?”

  “Because you had no knowledge of the big picture. It would not have been fair of me to engage you in any type of romance without first explaining to you my original intent when coming here and what the king is willing to do if he gets his hands on you.”

  I frown at him. “And you couldn’t have just told me those things that night?”

  A sad smile touches his lips. “As I recall, you were not of a mind to listen to me.”

  No, I guess I hadn’t been at the time. My feelings were hurt and I hadn’t wanted to hear anything from him. “You know what this is, don’t you, this sudden attraction you have for me?”

  Kallen looks amused again. “Please, enlighten me.”

  “I’m basically the last Fairy on earth because Maurelle doesn’t really count so you have to be attracted to me.”

  His eyebrows rise and he crosses his arms over his chest. “I have to be? So, even if you were spindly with warts all over your face, I would still have to find you attractive because of your Fairy blood and my lack of other Fairy options?”

  Okay, it sounds stupid when he says it like that. “Shouldn’t we be practicing?”

  His eyes are flashing with amusement now. “Yes, we should,” he says and he removes his glove from his left hand and holds it out to me. Slightly embarrassed to be touching him again after I had asked him to kiss me, I gingerly put my hand into his. His fingers curl tightly around mine and I try to close my mind off to any thoughts of him as I prepare to draw magic from the earth.

  Ten minutes later, Kallen is still on the ground trying to recuperate from my attempt to control my magic. He looks up at me and he is definitely paler than he was before. “I believe you are getting stronger with even less ability to control your magic. It should not be happening like this. You should have to grow into your powers for years, not days.” Rising to his feet, he brushes the snow off from him.

  “Maybe I have been.” I say thoughtfully.

  He stops brushing at the snow and looks at me. “What do you mean?”

  “You said earlier that it takes two powerful Fairies to bind another Fairy’s magic. Well, I’m pretty sure that my mom didn’t know any Fairies when she bound my Witch magic after I was born so maybe my Fairy magic has been growing all these years. I just haven’t used it until now because I didn’t know how.”

  First Kallen looks shocked and then he shakes his head in what looks like amazement. “Which would explain why you are having so much trouble controlling it. Fairy children begin their training when they are very young and their control grows with their magic as they reach adulthood. But you have a grown Fairy’s magical abilities and a young child’s ability to control it. That makes a lot of sense.”

  I frown. “Somewhere in there did you imply that I’m infantile?”

  Kallen chuckles. “Only your control over your magic.”

  “Okay, what do we do now that we’ve figured this out?”

  Kallen puts his lips together in a flat line and shrugs. “I honestly do not know.”

  I shake my head and sigh. “Of all the times to not have all the answers you choose this time?”

  His brows come together and he purses his lips as he thinks. “We could try to tire your magic out.”

  “Huh? What does that mean?”

  “Maybe if we find something for your i
nitial rushes of magic to glom onto, other than me, you will gain more control as you are able to pull less and less magic. Basically, we’d be bringing your magical abilities down to the level of your ability to control it.”

  I think I understand what he means. “What could I have it glom onto?” Who uses the word glom anymore? He’s really showing his age with that word.

  Kallen slowly spins in a circle as he looks for a target for my magic. Finally, he stops and points. “Do you see that tree right there? The one with the large knot sticking out of it about halfway up? It is already dying and will fall on its own soon. Maybe you could hurry the process along.”

  I look at him doubtfully. “You want me to magically cut down a thirty foot tree?”

  “Believe me, if you send the same amount of magic you keep searing my insides with, you will have no problem felling the tree.” Felling, glom, maybe I’ll get him a thesaurus for Christmas.

  I shrug. “Okay, I’m willing to try it.” Kallen gestures towards the tree in an any time you’re ready signal.

  Turning towards the tree, I close my eyes and have a picture of it in my mind. I begin pulling the magic into me and as I feel it overflowing, looking for an outlet, I imagine it flowing into the tree. Almost immediately, I hear a loud bang and I’m being knocked to the ground. I open my eyes to find Kallen on top of me with his hands over his head and using his body to shield mine. As I move my head around, I understand why. I didn’t make the tree fall down, I made it explode and we are lying in a field of wooden shrapnel.

  Kallen opens his eyes and puts his elbows on the ground and he shakes his head as he lifts up to look at me. “You cannot do anything on a small scale, can you?”

  I don’t know what to say to that so I go with, “Apparently not,” which makes him laugh. Pushing himself off from me, he stands up and offers me his hand which I accept.

  “You need to do this several times before you will find that you are able to pull less and less magic as your mind and body begin to tire. We should pick a tree that is farther away, though.”

  “Do you really think that it’s good for the environment for me to be blowing up trees? What if there are bird nests or other animals in them?”

  Kallen crosses his arms over his chest. “As opposed to rock slides and avalanches ruining their homes? At least this way you are significantly lowering the number of displaced animals.”

  He’s right. Again. I hate that about him. “Fine. Pick a tree.”

  He picks a tree about a hundred feet from us and I repeat the process. I do this six more times before I can finally start to feel a drag as I attempt to pull magic inside of me. Kallen gives me a relieved ‘finally’ look when I tell him.

  “Now I want you to make the snow shake off from one tree.”

  “Which one?”

  “Any one, you pick.”

  I get a tree in mind and I pull from the earth. It feels like the magic is coming into me in a trickle instead of rush. I concentrate on the tree that I picked and imagine it swaying softly, just hard enough for the snow to fall from its limbs.

  The next thing I know, I’m being swung around in the air by Kallen. “You did! You finally did it,” he says with a grin and I can’t help but smile along with him. After planting a quick kiss on my lips that I wasn’t expecting, he sets me back down on the ground. I’m going to put that kiss down to his excitement and just ignore it this time. He just better not be thinking that he can kiss me every time I do something right.

  “Okay, do it again,” he says still smiling like a teacher who’s worst student finally added two plus two and came up with four instead of ten.

  After a few more tries and getting it right, I’m exhausted. “I don’t think I can do another one.”

  Kallen nods. “It is probably best to rest for a bit.”

  Looking out over the trees, I’m impressed with my self. I can control my magic sometimes. I’m about to turn back around towards Kallen when something catches my eye. It’s brown and first I assumed it was a tree but the more I look at it, the more it looks like a chimney. I squint my eyes to try to get a better look and before I know it, I’m walking towards it.

  “Xandra, where are you going?”

  “I think there’s something down there.” I keep walking and I can hear Kallen’s footsteps following behind.

  When I can finally make out the entire structure, I turn to Kallen in amazement. “It’s a ranger station!”

  Of course, he has no idea what a ranger station is so he looks at me blankly until I explain. “During the summer months when there’s the risk of forest fires, the forest rangers will come up and stay in these small cabins and keep watch.”

  “To watch the forest burn?” Kallen asks looking confused.

  I roll my eyes. “No, of course not. To be able to locate a fire quickly so it can be put out before it spreads too far.”

  “Do Witches come and put the fire out?”

  I can’t help but laugh. I haven’t thought about how much has changed technologically since Kallen was last in our realm. “No, they use airplanes to drop water and chemicals on the fire. Do you know what an airplane is?”

  That old haughty expression cmes back on his face. “I familiarized myself with the different modes of transportation when I entered this realm.”

  “Well, good for you,” I say dryly and I start walking towards the cabin again. Maybe if I get there first, I can lock him out of it.

  Chapter 15

  The cabin is empty of course since it’s the dead of winter. Peering in the windows, I can see a small cook stove, some radio equipment, a wooden table and chairs and a cot. The bare basics but after sleeping outside for more nights this week than I thought I would have to in my entire lifetime, it looks like a palace to me.

  Kallen tries the door handle but it’s locked. That doesn’t seem to be a problem for him because within a couple of seconds he has the lock turning and the door open. I really, really want to be able to do stuff like that. I hate having to rely on him for all the magic that requires finesse and delicacy.

  The inside of the cabin is dark but it only takes a moment to locate some kerosene lamps on a small shelf and get one lit with the matches lying next to them on the same shelf. Swinging the lantern around slowly, the cabin is neat and clean with only the occasional cobweb here and there. I don’t care how many spiders there are, they can even sleep with me as long as I can sleep under a roof and on something other than rock. I’m grinning from ear to ear when I look at Kallen who’s leaning against the door jamb watching me. “Isn’t this great?”

  “Indeed.”

  I roll my eyes at his lack of enthusiasm. “You’re more than welcome to sleep outside still. In fact, maybe that’s a good idea so you can keep watch for Maurelle and Olwyn,” I say sweetly.

  He chuckles. “I could sense them just as easily from in here.”

  I give him a hard look. “Okay, but I get the cot.” And then I add just so there’s no confusion, “By myself.”

  He raises his eyebrows at my lack of subtlety. “Are you implying that I would want to sleep in a small cot with you? You are a half-breed after all.”

  I start to get mad at him but the glint in his eye let’s me know he’s trying to get a rise out of me. Nope, not going to happen this time. It’s pretty sad that a tiny little shack in the middle of nowhere feels like heaven to me but it does and I’m not going to let him spoil my mood. So I ignore him and continue looking around the cabin.

  Above the table there is a cupboard with two doors and when I open it I am so happy that I almost cry. It’s full of canned food. Soup, chili, stew, veggies. At least for the time being, I won’t have to eat something I’ve seen with its head still attached.

  Kallen has finally come in and closed the door and he’s using some of the wood next to the fireplace to get a fire going. I take down a can of chili and find an opener in the same cupboard. I start my own little fire on one of the burners of the stove and taking a pan from
a nail on the wall I dump the chili in and start heating it. I’ve never been a huge fan of chili but this chili smells like a gourmet meal to me.

  Once Kallen has the fire roaring and starting to fill the cabin with heat, he has a seat at the table and watches me as I dish the chili out into two bowls. I hand him one with a spoon and we sit in silence as we eat. At least it’s a fairly comfortable silence.