I met Brian at the big double doors that framed the school’s entrance as the lunch bell rang.
“Are you coming with us today?” he asked, blue eyes sparkling like sapphires. He looked rather amused at the scowl on my face.
“Yeah,” I wasn’t thrilled with the prospect as I’d had a vision flash of our future experiment. It had included a beautiful, exotic-looking girl with enormous eyes and silky black hair. She’d been home from school for an entire week, sick, so I had mostly forgotten about her until that vision popped up. Hannah and I weren’t best friends by a long shot. Some of my visions were no fun at all.
“You don’t sound so happy about coming,” Adam joked, coming around the corner with a few boys in tow.
“Sorry, I’ll try to sound happier.” I stretched a huge, fake grin on my face, which won me a quick kiss on the cheek, which moved to a bigger kiss on my lips. I forgot all about Hannah.
“Can’t you guys go make out somewhere else?” Michael’s voice popped up behind me.
“Yeah, you’re making those of us without girlfriends really jealous,” Tommy snorted.
The cousins, Tommy and Michael, could have been twins, with nearly-matching faces and eyes. Even the dimples in their cheeks were in the exact same place.
“Okay, let’s get going already. We’ve got stuff to learn, you know.” Erik’s round face was the color of a tomato as he came down the hall.
“What’s up with him?” I whispered as we watched him stalk to the door and push it open, rather forcefully.
“I think he’s fighting with Penny again,” Tommy snickered behind us. “I saw her leave a few minutes ago in her own car.”
“Maybe it’s a good thing we don’t have girlfriends if they make you act like that,” Michael noted.
The cousins burst into fits of laughter and Adam smirked. Erik tended to be as outgoing as Penny was shy, but on more than one occasion I had seen the pretty, doe-eyed girl stand up to him. If there was a fight, she normally was the one who won it.
We had just made it through the doors and were following Erik down the steps when he stopped dead in his tracks, causing all of us behind him to bump into each other.
A woman I had never seen before stood at the foot of the steps, glaring at us, with her hands resting on her hips. “Why aren’t you all in the school? I believe it is lunchtime, is it not?”
She’s not a teacher.
She’s too young to be anybody’s mother in this school. Maybe she’s from the college?
Who does she think she is to jump on us? We’re wolves. There are way more of us than there are of her.
I don’t know who she is, but she hasn’t got a lick of magic in her. She’s as human as they come.
I’m not in the mood for this.
I didn’t get to think of much of anything on my own for a couple minutes since I picked up on the thoughts of a half-dozen boys who stood frozen on the steps.
The woman studied us, and then flipped her long, black hair over her shoulder, looking at each of us in turn before she asked in clipped tones, “Well, are every one of you mute? I will have answers to my questions.”
“Who’s asking?” Erik was the first to speak. Whether from being in the front of the group, or from his earlier temper, I didn’t know, but from the belligerent tone of voice he used, I was betting on the latter.
Dark brown eyes regarded him shrewdly before she answered in a voice as cold as ice, “I am this school’s principal, so I suggest you take better care of your tone with me. I do not take lack of respect lightly.”
That last statement made everyone back up an involuntary step. As the group of us shifted a foot back up the stairs, she continued, “My original question has yet to be answered.”
“We are on our way to the Reservation for the rest of today’s classes,” Adam spoke up, “Three days a week, we leave at noon to study the heritage and tradition of our people. It has been encouraged and approved through the school’s administration.”
“Has it now,” she murmured, her eyes lighting on the two of us that stuck out. Me, with my blonde, curling corkscrew hair and Brian with his sapphire eyes. “Approved and encouraged for all of you?”
“Yes,” Adam said firmly. “For all of us.”
A familiar voice cleared itself behind us, and we turned to see Ms. Garcia, the principal’s secretary, looking past us as she gave the woman a beaming smile.
“I’m so sorry I hadn’t made it down here in time to meet you as soon as you arrived. You are Ms. Townsend, correct?” At the woman’s nod, she continued, “I’m very happy to meet you. I’m Ms. Garcia, the school secretary.”
“Ms. Garcia, do these children have permission to leave school property?”
“Ah…um.” Ms. Garcia seemed to finally notice the seven of us between her and the other woman. “Yes. Yes, ma’am, they do. They have other studies for the remainder of the day at the Reservation.”
“All of them?”
She gave us another look, as if searching for the hundreds of children we had stolen and hidden among us, before she answered, “Yes, all of them.”
“Very well, I will expect to see proof of these studies and a copy of your grades tomorrow. Each of you will drop off a paper of such in the morning at my office.” She stepped over to the side of the steps, and waved her hand, dismissing us. “You may go.”
At that declaration of freedom everyone moved at once, more than ready to get past the woman who had just made Mr. Giles seem like a tame kitten on his worst days. On the last step I got jostled, and bumped lightly against her shoulder as I went by.
Her eyes widened as if she was surprised that I had dared to touch her, but she didn’t move.
“Sorry, sorry.” I mumbled, as Adam took my hand and we dashed toward the parking lot.
“If she’s the one in charge now, we’re sunk. You watch, she’ll find some way of making us stay at school the whole time,” Tommy stated from the back of my Jeep.
In an effort to flee the new principal as quickly as possible, I had somehow ended up with half of the Keepers crammed in my backseat.
“Please move your elbow,” Michael informed his cousin solemnly, “You are killing my ribs.”
“Oh, sorry.” Quite a bit of shuffling ensued, which rocked my little Wrangler back and forth.
“Couldn’t you guys have ridden with Erik or Brian?” Adam looked over his shoulder and shot the two youngest of his pack a dirty look.
“No way are we riding with Erik when he’s ticked off. And Nikki’s car was closer than Brian’s truck,” Michael grumbled, glaring at Adam.
Adam sighed and turned around, buckling the seatbelt as he ignored the two cousins who had decided to ignore him as well as they sat talking to one another over the new girl they had spotted on the volleyball team.
From the general way their conversation was heading from the observations they had made of the girl’s legs, I figured I was going to have to clean a puddle of drool from the floorboard of my Jeep.
“Ignore them if you can.” Adam grinned at me.
“Yeah, we can only dream,” Tommy piped up from the back of my head.
“Some dreams come true, you know,” Michael added happily, “I may have a shot with her.”
“What do you mean? I thought I was going after her,” Tommy argued, shoving his cousin which rocked the car harder.
“Cut it out, you two,” Adam ordered. He was basically ignored for another five minutes until we made it to Adam’s house and pulled up into the driveway behind his house.
The cousins barreled out of my car, disappearing within seconds down the gravel road toward their own homes, still arguing over who was going to make a play for their long-legged dream girl, Kayleigh Hart.
“Next time, we aren’t letting them in the car with us. I don’t care if the new principal keeps them.” Adam shook his head, sending his long black hair over his shoulders. “Come on, let’s go find Hannah.” He took my hand, lacing his fingers between min
e.
Well, here we go, I thought ruefully. The worst part of my being a Seer was when I saw something happening in the future that I didn’t want to happen, it normally always came true. We were heading to see the only other girl that I knew of that had been interested in Adam. Then I realized that I didn’t know how far their relationship had gone before I came into the picture. I stopped, just shy of the house where we were headed. For some reason, my feet wouldn’t move another inch.
“So, you and Hannah,” I gulped, “before me.” Good Lord, I sounded like an idiot.
Adam stopped, too. He stared down at me, fixing me with his silver eyes. The tiny frown mark popped up between his brows and his eyes narrowed, “I have no idea what you’re trying to say. Are you feeling okay?”
No, I’m not okay. I had no idea how on earth to approach this particular subject. I was at a loss, so I stood there like a moron and bit my lip.
Adam was good at filling in the blanks, because he grinned and his eyes sparkled like quicksilver. “Are you trying to ask if Hannah and I were ever a couple?”
Well, he certainly managed to make that look easy, I thought, frowning. Then I nodded, crossing my arms over my chest.
“We went out a couple times, but decided to just stay friends.” He pulled me close to him, no easy feat since I was as rigid as a board. “You’ve nothing to worry about, Nikki. She’s only a friend. My heart belongs to you.”
And it always will, his voice whispered, filling my mind as he leaned over and kissed me. I’ll love you until the end of time.
I melted, leaning in to kiss him back as the air swirled and popped around us.
A feminine voice cut in, pulling me back into reality. “So, do you two need me to wait until you’re finished? Or would you rather I go back in the house and pretend you aren’t out here.”
Pretend we aren’t here. Just go away, I thought, though I knew that the girl watching us had no intention of budging. She let out a long, exasperated sigh and started tapping her foot impatiently.
“I have other things I could be doing, Adam. Things that don’t include watching people make out in my front yard.”
With something between a groan and an exasperated sigh, Adam leaned back from me and addressed the girl who stood a few feet away, “Sorry, Hannah. We didn’t mean to keep you from anything.”
Looking slightly less miffed, Hannah gave us a slight smile. “Since you look apologetic, I suppose I’ll forgive you.”
Adam rolled his eyes. “Nice of you to do that. Did you bring it or not?”
“Of course.”
It was cradled carefully in Hannah’s arms. It was the same glossy, white pelt that I had seen when she had explained the history of tanning to our school during the field trip. She hadn’t let anyone touch it then, and from the look on her face, I found myself wondering if she was going to let anyone touch it now. Surprisingly enough, she handed it over to Adam without a single word.
He draped it over my shoulders and took a step back. A small jolt of electricity thrummed along my skin as if he had just set an electric wire across my back instead of the pelt of an animal.
“So, would you guys like to tell me who I’m wearing?” I had a sneaking suspicion that the fur was old. Like a couple hundred years old, though it didn’t look like it. A current of magic zipped along the surface of my skin, sending tingling sensations from the top of my head all the way to my fingertips.
“This was the pelt that was found when our first Seer passed away. Her body disappeared and this was lying in its place,” Hannah said.
I’d thought as much. I bit my lip as one spark sizzled loud enough to make an audible pop. Hannah’s eyebrows lifted at the sound. “I’ve been the guardian of that pelt for two years now. It’s never done that.”
“So, does that mean I can take it off now?”
“I want you to try something first. Do you think you can shift into your wolf?” Adam asked.
I shrugged and concentrated on the wolf inside of me, forgetting the fur that hugged my shoulders. I felt the wolf answer immediately. The air filled with a white fog and within seconds I was sitting on the ground, looking calmly at Adam through my wolf’s eyes.
He grinned at me. I tried to return a wolfy smile.
“That’s awesome, I’m glad it worked. Now, can you switch back?”
As if the wolf understood, she left and I stood human once again, but the fur that had been on my shoulders had disappeared.
Hannah bit her lip as she looked at me, as if she couldn’t figure out whether to chew me out for losing the pelt, or to be happy that she didn’t have to deal with it anymore.
As if reading her mind, Adam nodded to her. “It found its purpose,” he said, and then turned back to me. “Can you switch again?”
I switched back and forth a few more times to prove it wasn’t a one-time deal. Each time came as easily as the first and I began to envy the Keepers who had been able to change at will from the beginning. It wasn’t fair that I had to have a wolf pelt to make it happen and it was even worse that the pelt seemed to be part of me now.
“Cool, I’m glad we got that fixed. I won’t worry about you as much now.” Adam smiled.
“Well, if I’m no longer needed, I’m heading back in the house.” Not waiting for either of us to reply, Hannah was already walking away before Adam called out a quick thank you.
“Yeah, no problem.” Her words were muffled and then the door to the house shut, leaving us there alone in Hannah’s front yard.
“I’ve got an idea. You can go on the hunt with us now that you can switch to wolf.”
“I think not.” I crossed my arms and glared at him. Just because I could change into my wolf when I wanted to, didn’t mean that I wished to go chasing small furry creatures in the forest.
“It’s not what you’re thinking,” he said, trying to explain, “You’ll need to let your wolf act like a wolf sometimes, and to do that, you’ll need to run with us. We can show you the best places to go so that you won’t be seen by hunters.”
“I still don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Yeah, I’m not too keen on the idea, either,” a voice spoke up behind us, startling us both so much that we jumped. We turned to find Brian grinning at us. “You two are way too easy to sneak up on. Everyone is waiting to see if you’re coming with us or not.” He shrugged, pointing in the general location of the forest behind Adam’s house.
Somehow, I ended up walking in the direction he had indicated. I knew Brian hadn’t been on a hunt with the others yet. Every time he’d tried, something had happened. Once, he had attempted to hunt alone. The morning after, he came to school and told me horror stories. I wasn’t looking forward to killing anything—and I sure as heck wasn’t going to eat it—but if Brian was there too, it might make it better. After all, I’d always heard that misery loves company.
I followed them to the edge of the woods.
“Hey, I hear there’s a new company putting up a cell tower,” Brian said, in an obvious effort to cheer me up, “It’s supposed to be top of the line. You might get your phone working yet.”
I managed a weak smile. I doubted anything they put in would ever work. The mountains were always blamed for the lack of cell service. The towers installed all over the county kept getting taller, as if the companies were hoping that they could eventually make them taller than the mountains. They didn’t know the true reason that blocked the signals was below, in the magic of the people who lived around those towers.
“Speaking of phones, have you heard anything from Tori?” I asked.
The smile left as a frown took its place, “Yeah, she made it back to Florida, safe and sound. I miss her already.”
“She said she might make it back up here for Christmas. That’s only a month away.”
Tori, my best friend, met Brian while visiting me, and they had hit it off. Really well, it seemed, from the dejected look on Brian’s face.
“I’ve changed my mind
. I don’t want a girl if she makes you look like that,” Michael told Tommy. “Kayleigh Hart is all yours.”
“Cool.” His cousin grinned. “I have witnesses, you know. No backing out. She’s mine.”
“Okay, guys. Everyone shift to wolf, we’re going to show Brian and Nikki the best places not to be seen,” Adam instructed, taking charge of his pack.
Six different colors misted around them, causing the air to sparkle in the afternoon sun. Within seconds, six wolves stood where the boys had been.
Here goes nothing, I thought, switching over to my wolf. Hopefully, we’ll have a nice uneventful run, just to stretch our legs. Nothing more.
I hesitated, watching them take off in front of me. I stood there, kneading the soft dirt beneath my paws. I realized it was a nervous gesture and something a cat would do, so I stopped. Adam was the only one who hadn’t left me. He walked over and nudged me with his black muzzle.
Everything is going to be fine. Trust me.
And with that, he trotted ahead, stopping just long enough to glance over his shoulder and make sure I was following.
Follow I did, though it wasn’t willingly. After he was certain that I was still behind him, Adam took off into the shadows, forcing me into a run in order to keep him in sight. Branches and limbs parted, roots moved of their own accord, clearing the path. I wasn’t used to this. Any other time that I had walked through the forest, I seemed to trip over every exposed root and more than once I had been swatted by a branch.
The Keeper Saga: Wynter's War, Charmed, and The One (The Boxed Set Book 2) Page 3
