Altered

by Shelly Crane

  She squinted. “That was the day that the troll took you in the woods.”

  “Yep.” She pressed her lips together. “That was also the day that he was almost killed, almost stabbed by a goblin’s tooth right in front of Aries to get me away from that troll.”

  “No way,” Clara hissed under her breath.

  “It’s true. Ask Aries, he was pretty pissed at him about it. I didn’t know that was the only way you could kill a devourer until after he’d done it and Aries was so mad, saying that he could have grabbed me instead, but Enoch wouldn’t have it. He said he had to do it, that he couldn’t let me be hurt.”

  Clara looked in my eyes and then back at Enoch. Enoch was watching us again and I knew he knew we were talking about him when he and Clara made eyes contact. She looked away angrily, but I didn’t know if it was because her theory was dying or because she was still clinging to it.

  All of a sudden, Soria gasped and grabbed her chest. She gripped onto Bridgette with her other hand and tried to breathe as…whatever it was kept happening. I assumed she was having an asthma attack.

  Bridgette rubbed her back and said, “That’s right. Just breathe through it.” She looked at me. “She’s okay. She’s a witch, but she also gets these vision sort of things. It’ll be over soon. It’s okay.”

  I nodded, but I was on the verge of freaking out. Soria looked to the sky, leaning her head back and moaned. She cursed and grabbed her neck.

  “Block her, Clara. Don’t let Franz see,” Bridgette hissed. “He always freaks out. She doesn’t want him to see.”

  A few more seconds, which felt like hours, and she calmed, breathing in long breaths; pulling them in and pushing them out looked painful to her. She looked up at me and said, “Oh, God no. Something’s big coming.”

  “What?” I asked.

  She shook her head.

  “She doesn’t see,” Bridgette explained and sighed. “She can’t see a vision, she just gets an episode and knows something is going to happen. It’s like a warning system, but we never know what to look for or when.”

  “But it’s still really useful. We’re on alert, if nothing else,” Clara soothed.

  Soria came to me and reached her hand up to my face. “Fay, I’m going to give you a gift.”

  “No, Soria!” Clara yelled and reached for her. I was so confused by the sudden turnaround of events that I just stood there. Clara yanked on Soria’s arm, but she still reached my cheek and cupped it as if Clara hadn’t yanked her at all. As soon as she touched my skin, I felt a warm wind all over me and then my eyes were opened to a new world.

  I could hear voices and yelling around me as Franz, Enoch, and the men ran over from the fire, but all I could really see was Soria’s face and all the magical, ethereal things that had suddenly appeared at her touch. The dark world was suddenly bright, almost like night vision. I pulled up Clara’s arm from behind Soria and felt my mouth open as I stared. I pulled my fingers through the barbed string and it went straight through it. It looked like smoke. I followed it with my eyes the short distance to where Eli was standing next to Enoch, right behind Soria, next to Franz. Then I saw Aries’ and Regina’s between the two of them. My eyes looked all over for anything that wasn’t normal, anything that I could notice and pick up for being different. When I saw the little jars in the trees, I cocked my head to the side and squinted at the glowing bugs in them.

  “Security system,” Aries told me and smiled. “They make a high-pitched squealing noise when anyone is moving about at night. Soria activates them with her magic before she goes to bed every night. But…humans can’t see them.”

  I felt my muscles tense as I let my eyes wander and fall on Enoch. He looked epically pissed.

  He growled his words at Soria, even though it was obvious to all that he was trying to contain it. “Soria, get your hands off her, give her back to me, and what the hell do you think you’re doing!”

  “Enoch, that’s my mate you’re growling at,” Franz told him, a hand on his shoulder.

  “Your mate just gave my mate the sight, without permission or cause or—”

  “Mate?” Clara screeched. She looked at me accusingly, but I didn’t even know how all of that worked, so I didn’t know if I was his mate or not. Did he just say I was? Was there a ceremony? A bond or something? I didn’t know.

  All I heard was Enoch say I was his mate and everything pretty much stopped for me.

  He and I stared at each other and he smiled a little in that why does this always happen to us in front of a hundred people kind of way. “Come on, Fay.”

  “What did you do to me?” I asked her as I went to him. He tucked me under his chin and wrapped one arm around my back, the other hand he used to lift my chin as he looked in my eyes. He sighed. “What?” I asked him softly since Soria didn’t seem to be answering my question.

  “I’m going to miss your blue eyes,” he whispered and pulled my chin up higher to kiss me. I didn’t know what that meant, but I clung to this moment, this second, as I gripped his shirt lightly and kissed him back. When he pulled back, I opened my eyes and immediately saw Clara behind him. She was covering her mouth, looking skeptical and peeved. I licked my lips and looked over at Soria, who was being shielded by Franz now. He was wielding a wicked scowl.

  “Soria, what did you do to me?” I asked softly. There was no nice way to word that sentence.

  Franz grunted. She laughed and palmed his cheek, pulling him to look at her. “Oh, how I love it when you get all alpha male for me.”

  He tried to hide it, but he was practically a strutting peacock at her words. She kissed him and then looked at me. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to scare you.”

  “You didn’t,” I told her and smiled wryly. “I just…don’t know what’s going on.”

  “When I have a ‘vision’,” she said and made air quotations with her fingers, “it means something is coming like we told you.”

  “You had a vision?” Franz asked, all worried. “When?”

  “Just now. It’s not a big deal.”

  “But you hate them. I wish you wouldn’t hide them from me.”

  “But you get all worked up over them and it’s not a big deal. That’s why I don’t tell you every time I have one.”

  He sighed her name in a growl. “Soria.”

  “Baby,” she responded with a smile. She looked back at me. “So we know something is going to happen. It’s only fair that you have the sight if you’re going to be with us, so you can be prepared.”

  “I think you should have asked,” Enoch said hotly, but obviously less angry.

  “I felt the need to give it to her and I follow my instincts.”

  Clara sighed behind me and I looked at her over my shoulder. She shrugged. “What? I tried to stop her.”

  “Why do you and Enoch not want me to have this sight so badly?” I laughed once. “It’s something you actually agree on.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t want you to have anything to do with magic, anything more than you have to. I feel responsible enough as it is that you’re involved in all this and with…” She sighed again and cleared her throat.

  “Point taken,” Enoch said hard. “I don’t care if you have the sight if that’s what you want. I just wanted her to ask your permission first. I never want to force anything on you.” He looked at me. Right at me. “If there ever comes a time that you don’t want any of this anymore, just say the word and with a little persuasion, I’ll help you leave it all behind.”

  Clara’s gasp was audible behind us.

  “Stop,” I whispered. Begged.

  “I’m just telling you the truth,” he whispered back. He looked at Soria over my head.

  I gripped his shirt in my hands tighter and blocked them all out. “What does the sight do?”

  “Just that,” Soria answered. “Shows things that are supernatural. Bonds, things that would normally be glamoured over to humans, anything paranormal that you normally wouldn’t have seen befo
re. A side effect of it, however, is that your eye color turns green.”

  My eyes were green… I was in this world now. I needed to have my eyes wide open. “Thank you. I didn’t know about the sight, but I would have asked for it had I known it existed.”

  She paused. “You’re welcome. I’m sorry. My gift chooses people and it isn’t always tactful about it.”

  I wrapped myself around Enoch’s arm, tugged him to follow me, and laughed nervously. “It’s all right. Like I said, all is forgiven.”

  Everyone was more reserved when we got back around the fire. I could hear Franz asking Soria about her vision.

  Enoch rubbed my hair for a minute and then turned me to face the fire so he could wrap his arms around me from behind. “Now you won’t be cold,” he whispered in my ear.

  “You’re being really sweet,” I mused. “I’m fine, I promise.”

  “There’s some scary things in my world. Now you’ll see them all. ”

  “I’m sure. But you’ll be there to protect me, won’t you?” I couldn’t help but grin as I looked up at him over my shoulder and leaned further into him.

  He laughed into my neck. “Bloody hell. I’m done for.”

  “Bloody hell. I’m done for, too.”

  He bellowed a deep laugh and gripped me tightly to him. Clara and Eli were so fascinated that they did nothing but practically sit there and stare. So I ignored them. Franz and Enoch made up in like ten seconds. What would have taken girls ten months to apologize for took them ten seconds to take care of.

  When Franz, Enoch, and Aries were talking about the next night and how we were going to get there was when we heard the scream come from the river. I jumped up from the log, but Enoch grabbed my arm.

  “I’ll stay with them,” Aries told him as the other men ran off.

  Enoch nodded to him and looked at me. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

  He started to go, but I gripped his hand and brought him back to me. I went up on my tiptoes and grabbed his face to kiss him. I exhaled against his lips before letting him go.

  “Be careful,” I told him.

  He leaned in and took one more pull from my mouth and walked away, looking at me as he did so. “A guy could get use to this.”

  I smiled and nodded. I hoped so.

  We huddled and waited as Aries made a meaty wall of protection for us. It was quite comical how the men were so set on being the protectors over us without being asked. It was just in their nature.

  Within minutes, we heard the crackle of leaves that let us know they were walking through the woods. We saw them emerge and I couldn’t hold in my gasp as seeing a half-naked girl in Enoch’s arms. He was carrying her, her arms around his neck, and I felt a stab of jealousy before I pushed it away. She was obviously in distress. Her clothes were dirty and her hair was a mess of wet curls, which meant she’d been in the water. I didn’t wait for them to bring her to us. I rushed forward.

  “Fay!” I heard Aries scold, but I kept going.

  Enoch set the woman down and I realized he was carrying her because she had no shoes on. She limped a little in the soft grass and looked around at us nervously. Enoch glared at me when I emerged next to him. I smiled a little at him and shrugged, whispering, “You need a woman’s touch for this.”

  I looked at the woman. “What’s your name?”

  She looked about ready to topple over as she looked at the ground. I saw the rest of them had followed me over.

  “I have no name.”

  They all stepped back, apparently knowing what that meant. Enoch pulled me behind him.

  “You’re an outcast witch!” Soria accused and actually put her arm out in front of Franz.

  “I am,” she said softly. “I could have just not told you, but I told you the truth. Please…” she pleaded. “They stripped my name from me, but it wasn’t my fault. Please.” She fell to her knees and started to cry. Her tears sizzled in the grass and I stood in stupefied wonder.

  I got a weird feeling about all this.

  Bridgette was arguing with her devourer in hushed whispers before we could hear what they were saying.

  “But everyone who comes here seeking help is entitled to at least a fair vote from the group!” she said and pleaded with him. “Augustus, please. What if they had turned me away? You would have never met me.” She smiled. “And we both know how much of a shame that would be.”

  He shook his head and groaned. “It would be a travesty.” He gripped her shoulders and kissed her before looking up and clearing his throat loudly as if to say, ‘stop staring.’ “She’s right. We at least need to let the group vote. Our open door policy is what it is, but…”

  “Why was your name stripped, and why were you cast out?” Soria asked, all business.

  The girl’s tears fell harder as she told us. “My clan was a very open and progressive one, or so I thought… My mate. I met him outside my clan and… He wasn’t a warlock.”

  You could hear the sighs all around. “You thought they would approve?” Bridgette asked. “They never approve. What was your name before?”

  “No,” Soria said quickly. “She’s never allowed to say that name again. We’ll have to give her a new name.”

  “We?” Bridgette said with a smile.

  Soria rolled her eyes. “She got kicked out because of her mate.” She looked at the woman. “What was he?” she asked quietly.

  We all noticed how she said referred to him in the past tense, and how broken up the woman was. It was obvious the clan must’ve not taken the news well. They killed him to hurt the woman and then cast her out. Wow, these people don’t play around.

  “He was a lycan.”

  “A werewolf?” Bridgette asked, her voice shrill.

  “They aren’t as bad as they say they are,” the woman defended. “He was so good to me, and to them. He repaired things in our clan, houses that needed to be fixed, all kinds of things. They didn’t even know he was a lycan until I told them he was. And then they killed him because of it. Because of me.”

  Her tears had made small black spots in the grass beneath her.

  Soria knelt down next to her. “Our kinds don’t understand. I’m a witch, too. I left before I could be cast out. I’m sorry we were so skeptical, but we have a lot of people coming at us right now. How did you even know where to find us?”

  She gulped. “I cast a spell to take me to a place where I could be free.” She shuddered through a sob. “I thought that when I ended up in the lake that I was meant to drown, that it meant that there was no place like that and death was the only option.”

  Soria hugged her, leaning away with a hiss when the woman’s tears burned her shoulder. “I’m sorry!” she wailed.

  “It’s okay. You know how many times I burned my mate when I first got here?” She smiled. “A lot.” They both looked back at Franz. He smiled as he came and helped her up.

  “And I’d go through it all again,” he said. “Come on. Come sit by the fire. We’ll get you something to eat.”

  She looked back at Enoch. “Thank you.”

  He nodded once.

  They all left, but Enoch grabbed my hand to hold me back. He sighed. “Having a strained, upset witch in camp is dangerous,” he mused.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “I can see why. But it could also be a really good tool.”

  “Witches are the most volatile creatures there are.” He swiped his face. “I hope this doesn’t blow up in our face.”

  “What happened?”

  “She was in the water, so tired she could barely swim anymore. No idea where she came from.”

  I squinted and turned over what she said in my mind. “And you jumped in to save her?” I said, just now noticing that he was soaking wet.

  “Yeah.”

  I started to walk back, but he grabbed my hand again. I smiled and shook my head. “You’re getting insatiable.”

  The little smile that sat on his lips was adorable as he scoffed. “We haven’t even brush
ed the surface of insatiable.” He put a hand behind my head and tilted it back before bending down to me. I gripped his cold, wet shirt in my fingers. It made feeling his hard stomach that much easier. He shivered and moved a little. “I’m ticklish, love.”

  I laughed under my breath. “How is that possible?” I asked against his lips and kept kissing him. “I thought you were a big, bad devourer?”

  “I am a big, bad devourer,” he told me and before I knew it, a tree was pressed against my back. I laughed loudly and pushed against his chest and gave him a stern look.

  “You’re all wet.”

  His face twisted and he groaned. “Ah, you’re killing me. Baby, don’t talk dirty to me right now.”

  I giggled and had no idea why he was in such a good mood, but I loved it. I hugged him around his neck, not even caring that I was getting wet in the process, but apparently he did.

  “You’re going to get wet.”

  “It’s okay.”

  “You’ll get cold.” He laced my fingers with his and tugged me toward the fire. “We’ll get warmed up. Come on, princess.”

  I smiled to myself. “That name has really grown on me.”

  “I know.” He smirked and looked over at me. “You never hated it to begin with.” I let my jaw drop open. “I never got any anger from you when I said it. You’ve liked it from the very beginning.” He leaned in and pressed his lips to my ear. “Admit it.”

  I huffed a laugh. “I will never admit it.” I smiled as I stared straight ahead, but he looked at my peripheral and it made me smile wider. When we reached the fire, he sat on an open spot on a log and pulled me to sit between his legs.

  The nameless witch watched the whole thing as she sat with a blanket around her shoulders, eating a bowl of something—stew probably. She seemed a little irked as she watched Enoch’s arms go around me and settle on my thighs and I didn’t get it. If she just lost her mate, how could she possible have a crush on Enoch already?

  I got it—he saved you and you have some hero worship going on, but you said they killed was your mate. Your mate. Again, something wasn’t setting right in my gut.

  Enoch was looking the other way talking to Aries and Franz and hadn’t seen anything. I was the new person in the group. Did I really want to be the one to start something by bringing up the fact that the new witch was crushing on my boyfriend? No. That’s exactly what it would look like. It wouldn’t look like a crisis. She caught me looking and smiled a little before looking away to finish her food.