by K. F. Breene
While the Mata weren’t night creatures, they didn’t seem to keep normal hours, either. It seemed like they prowled half the night, slept way late, and started their day near noon. Basically, it was like living with a bunch of bartenders. Being that I got to see the sunlight with that schedule, while still keeping Toa happy, it was the schedule everyone kept.
Jonas grumbled about it constantly.
“Mage.” A stocky shape changer titled his head at me in greeting as he passed.
He just called me mage! I couldn’t help the foolish grin as I sauntered into the large kitchen and dining area. I had no idea why Jonas and Stefan hated these people—they seemed really cool to me.
Three burly men sat at the far end of a large wood table, hunched over their plates with wide smiles. As I entered, their eyes flicked my way. Their bodies straightened up marginally, smiles dwindling. Each gave me a nod hello.
“You guys don’t need to act all serious around me. You’re not on duty or anything,” I mumbled, turning right, toward the worn lime green kitchen island. Unlike Stefan’s mansion, which was kept pristine and refined, these cabins were mostly older and worked in. Clean, but not current. Did the same job, though.
“Don’t mind them,” a pixie-like girl with a shock of bright blue hair said as she strolled in. She scooped a mound of mashed potatoes out of the bowl on the island and dumped it onto her plate. “They think the sun shines out of their asses.”
Without turning around, the men at the table facing us straightened even more. Huge shoulders rolled. “We know the sun shines out of our asses, actually, “the one in the middle said, "and if you’d care to put your money where your mouth is, I’d show you.”
“No, thanks. I don’t like seeing hairy full moons.” The girl winked at me with a smirk. The other two guys at the table huffed out a laugh. One slapped the butt of the joke on the back with a hearty guffaw.
“Hilarious,” he drawled, standing up with his plate in his hands. He flashed the blue-haired girl a glare as he stalked our way.
Magic filled me instantly. I wasn’t sure what this guy would do, but was ready to unleash hell if he got violent.
The man gave me a wide berth as he entered the kitchen area, but veered in close to the blue-haired girl. Lightning-quick he reached toward her, his plate still in his free hand.
A blast of electricity zipped through me as I feared he might strike her. Pure black shot out of my hands, wrapping around his body and squeezing.
“What the fu—?ˮ The word ended in a wheeze.
“What’s happening?” one of the other guys barked, jumping up from the table. The wooden table surface jolted, knocking the remaining two plates to the ground. They crashed to the floor, food and porcelain splashing across linoleum.
“Don’t kill him, Sasha,” the girl said, a grin spreading up her face as she watched the man turn purple. “He was just trying to make me flinch. Haven’t been paying attention to the magical woman you were sent here to guard, have you, Rodge? Didn’t realize she acts first and thinks later when someone she knows is in danger. Not so detailed in your job, hmmm?”
Rodge wheezed harder as I worked on unraveling the spell.
“Sorry—I thought you were going to hit her,” I squeaked.
“What’d she do?” one of the rescue party asked, standing just where the linoleum of the dining room changed into tile of the kitchen.
The spell peeled away. Rodge took a huge, lung-filling breath, leaning forward against the island.
“She got him with a spell, obviously.” The girl speared a piece of roast beef with a fork and hauled it onto her plate. “You guys better clean up that mess before the Alpha comes in here.”
Rodge shot me a glare. With wooden movements, he dropped his plate, miraculously unscathed, into the dishwasher.
As he moved away, leaving his two comrades to clean up their mess, the girl titled her head toward the food spread out on the counter. “Help yourself. I’m Ann, by the way. The one with the mullet over there is Pete.”
The guy on his hands and knees, wiping up spilled food, glanced up. “It’s not a mullet. I just haven’t had time to get to the barber.”
“Uh huh. And the other one is John.”
A man with bushy eyebrows and a receding hairline said, “Hi.” He jerked his head toward Pete. “It is a mullet, isn’t it?”
Pete straightened up with a pained expression. “The back just grows faster than the sides. I can’t help if that every time I change my hair gets a weird urge to Rapunzel down my back.”
“Anyway, don’t worry about Rodge,” Ann continued, laughing. “Being a shape changer goes right to his head. Thinks he’s invincible or something. Isn’t that right, guys? You all think you’re God’s gift.”
John huffed, a smile tweaking his lips. “You’re one to talk. Wasn’t it you that challenged the Alpha right after you changed?”
Ann’s face went crimson, but she smiled at me. “I totally did. I just felt so…strong! How about you? Do you get stronger with the magic?”
The guys paused, staring at me.
Still tingly from the scene a couple moments ago, and a little shocked that Rodge didn’t try to throw me through a window, I carefully picked up a plate with a shaking hand. “No, I didn’t get any stronger. And, as you apparently know, I don’t really have a firm control over my magic.”
Ann waved my comment away as she headed toward the table. Pete said, “It took me a few years to have a firm grip on changing. You can’t just learn everything right away. It takes a while. You have that vampire-looking-dude to help you out, though, right?”
I giggled. I couldn’t help myself. “He does look like a vampire, doesn’t he?”
“I thought the myths were true when I first saw him,” Ann admitted, cutting her meat. “What’s with the staring?”
“I know, right?” I laughed as I moved toward the table with my plate. “Drives me crazy. But he knows what he’s doing.”
Pete leaned against the door frame. “Always helps to have a good teacher. Listen to that guy and you’ll have all this down lickety-split. Well, nice to meet you, Sasha. See ya later.”
“See ya.” John gave a salute as he followed Pete out the room.
“They’re friendly,” I said before I shoveled some mashed potatoes into my mouth. Constantly working with magic, and the energy drain that went with it, had me famished.
“Yeah, everyone here is pretty cool. We’re family. Changing for the first time is really scary. It hurts, itʼs foreign, you turn into a thing out of story books, and you think you’re going to die. I freaked out for the first year. Didn’t ever want to change. Tim coached me through it.”
“He’s a good leader, then?”
Ann nodded adamantly. “He’s the backbone of this whole outfit. That guy bleeds for the pack. He’d do anything for any one of us. A lot of us would be running around wild, terrified and getting dead if he didn’t create the structure we have now. Yeah, it’s good here. I’m used to what I am, now, but at first…” She shook her head. “It was a hard first year.”
I took a steadying breath. “I’m still in that first year.”
Ann leaned against the table, surveying me. “You don’t really fit in, huh? I mean, you’re human, so that’s gotta be weird, right? Hanging out with a bunch of giant dudes with perpetual boners…”
I choked out a laugh, spraying food. I raked the back of my hand across my face. “Don’t do that when I’m eating!”
She chuckled and cut off a bit of her meat. “What? Spread my hilariousness around?”
“Yes, exactly.” I sobered. “And yes, it’s a little…lonely. Where I’m at.”
She beamed. “Was lonely. We aren’t exactly the same, I guess, but we both started out human, and we both had to get used to what we’ve become, right? So, now you got a partner in crime. Which is great, because I have a great idea for a practical joke, and I can’t think of anyone that would hate it more than that surly bodyguard of your
s.”
Excited laughter bubbled out of my chest. “I’m in.”
“Where is he by the way?” Ann glanced at the door.
“I gave him the slip. He’ll be around soon. He’s pretty good at tracking me down, unfortunately.”
The large form of Jonas appearing in the doorway punctuated my words. I really missed privacy.
*****
“So this is what it’s come to?” Jonas asked a few days into their protection detail as he watched Sasha. She stood in the clearing beyond the cabins with Toa, working at some spell or other. “This is what more than a decade of good service gets you? Watching some human pet play at magic? The borders are open, our enemy is pushing at us, making a bunch of noise, and here we are, sitting on our asses, staring at some dumb human?”
“How do you know what’s happening with the borders?” Charles asked more lightly than he felt like asking.
“Unlike you, I keep tabs on my surroundings. I’m not going to let the Boss take us all down because he’s infatuated.”
“Unlike you,” Charles returned with an edge to his voice, “I trust the Boss’s judgment. She’s at black power level, Jonas. Black. That’s the highest you can reach. Protecting her from getting snatched is ten times more important than chasing some purple Dulcha back across our border. Plus, half the time, she summons up all sorts of crap that keeps us on our toes. Maybe you should drop the pity party and be a team player for once. Or do you have interests outside of our clan…?”
Jonas swung his gaze away from a flailing Toa enshrouded in black smoke. Charles felt his skin prickle within Jonasʼs hostile glare, as if he stared into the eyes of a predator, the gaze flat and unwavering. “Be careful, Boy Wonder. You might be the Boss’s favorite now, but when he gets tired of the human, you won’t be much more than a baby with a Watch Command badge again.”
Charles shook his head, forcing himself to look away. Human males stalked the perimeter of the clearing, using all their senses to guard. If Charles was honest with himself, besides the fact that these Mata changed into animals, they had a lot of the same characteristics his kind did. Their vision wasn’t much improved, but their hearing, their smell, and their prowess would top a normal human any day. Plus, they had this extra sense. Somehow magical, they could perceive things.
Charles had no idea how that perceiving thing worked. He could walk up to one of the shifters, absolutely silent, and he or she’d turn around and notice him as if he’d been as loud as Sasha. At breakfast earlier that morning, heʼd basically tiptoed in. Heʼd made sure his clothes didn’t even make a rustle. But sure enough, a really hot chick with her back to him had asked if he wanted coffee when he was only a couple steps into the room!
How did she know? It was a little creepy.
He didn’t want to ask about it, though. The Mata didn’t seem to like his kind much. And of course the Boss and everyone older than Charles hated the Mata, so there was that. No one talked about it, but there was history.
“She can’t even do magic correctly,” Jonas growled, bringing Charles out of his reflections.
“She’s new to it. She wasn’t raised with it,” Charles shot back. He noticed a man at the edge of the clearing bracing, readying for a fight. A second later he was stripping out of his clothes.
Sasha paused in her ministrations, halting Toa with her. They looked toward the tree line. Charles stood as the male’s body blurred strangely, a blast of magic flaring. Skin morphed into fur, creating a huge wolf larger and broader than a Great Dane. Fighting one of them, with the teeth and claws and all that, would be…uncomfortable.
“Cool!” Sasha exclaimed.
A second later, Charles was running at the daft idiot. Toa, thinking just as fast, wrapped himself and Sasha in a white bubble, making a shield. At least one of them had sense. As Jonas joined Charles around the two mages, the rest of the clearing filled with wolves, ten in all, working together in defense like a wolf pack would.
Three members of Charles’s clan stepped into the clearing; Adnan, Mira, and, “Oh great,” Charles muttered. Darla. They traveled with a member of Tim’s pack, a male that changed into a Tiger, fierce and nasty when pushed to it. Jonas tried to push him to it, often.
Strangely, Toa kept the shield and the wolves kept their lupine form, teeth bared, surrounding the newcomers. Charles and Jonas stepped forward.
“Why are you here?” Jonas asked, his attention focused on Adnan. “Aren’t you supposed to be in class or something? This ain’t a daycare.”
Adnan raised his chin but didn’t have time to answer before Darla waved the thought away. “The Boss suspects a leak. We’ve come to warn you and provide a few more bodies . I’m also here to ensure the human is getting a proper magical education.” She eyed Toa with disdain.
“Stefan sent you?” Sasha blurted, hands at her hips.
Darla stared down at the human with her beautiful face perfectly flat. “I am still in line for the mate title, human. He might have a sophomoric interest in you now, but he is a business man. He wants all his future assets in one place. If you don’t work out, who do you think will take the mate title? And if something happens to me, there is Mira.”
Sasha visibly deflated as Toa nodded. The white shield winked out. “Let us get back to it,” Toa stated as he eyed Darla. “You may watch, but you may not interfere. If you have a problem with the way I am going about things, you are free to scurry back to your liege and tell on me, as you see fit.”
Darla’s eyes smoldered as she stared at the blond creep, receiving that strange blue-eyed gaze in return. She flicked her beautiful head and huffed. Toa turned to Sasha.
“Commence.”
“In front of her?” Sasha asked in a small voice.
Charles’s heart went out to her, but the Boss was doing the right thing. If Sasha couldn’t pull this off, he needed a mate, and Darla was the best contender. Still sucked for poor Sasha, though. She didn’t need the reminder that she was human, and might not be good enough.
Chapter 7
“I did it!” Sasha’s glance flew around the living room in the main cabin, landing on Charles. He momentarily dropped his knitting. “Charles, look. The dog-thing found me without shocking me. Finally. It only took the better part of a freaking week.”
A black, smoky blob fizzled at her feet. The intent had been to leave a charm in a place an enemy might travel. Then, when said enemy stepped through, the magic would return-to-sender with a light hum, alerting of trespassers. In the past Sasha had always gotten one hell of a shock. Today, she’d done it. She was making strides.
They sat in the living area of the largest log cabin, Toa wanting to be indoors to reduce the amount of distraction for Sasha. Jonas stood by the door, looking into the hall, monitoring someone’s progress toward the room. Either that, or looking at the ghost that set off that charm. Charles, as usual, sat in a chair, ready to have magic blasted at him at a moment’s notice. While Sasha was getting a hundred times better, she still had mishaps. None so far tonight, but Charles knew better than to get his hopes up.
“Good.” Toa glided over to her in that creepy way he had. “That is a moderate charm which those with less than red power levels cannot achieve. Now we will take the next step up.”
Moderate? Charles was suddenly extremely glad he was both violent, and great with a sword, because no way could he do that spell with any sort of results. He had plenty of power, but he’d never been great at magical finesse.
Sasha took a big breath as Toa started explaining something to do with the elements fire and water. The man could bore a plant with the way he droned on. Judging by Sasha’s quickly glazing eyes, her mind was already drifting.
“I shall demonstrate,” Toa cut off suddenly. Sasha wasn’t the only one learning.
Pure white magic drifted into existence, creating a beach ball sized orb in the center of the room. Translucent, it hovered beautifully, reminding Charles of the first snowfall of winter.
“Now, walk
into it,” Toa instructed Sasha.
“No.” Jonas straightened, stepping further into the room. “That spell can kill.”
“By applying the proper defensive magic, and if the sphere is a solid color, then yes, it will kill if the caster has enough power. This sphere, as you can see, is not solid. It will simply be unpleasant,” Toa explained patiently.
“Oh, fantastic,” Sasha muttered.
“Ah, yes, baby steps,” Darla said in a silky purr as she stepped into the room behind Jonas.
“What’re you doing here?” Jonas asked in a thick growl.
“Assessing the level of training. Making sure our star pupil is worth all of our time. The sooner she fails, the sooner I’ll be back on top.” Darla gracefully lowered herself into a chair beside the door, her legs peeking out from the slit in her shimmery dress all the way to her enticing upper thigh.
Charles’s mouth went dry. He hadn’t had sex in a while. Those damn Mata were worse than Sasha for being prudes. Well, not worse, but certainly as bad. And more violent, too. He’d merely hinted to one of their females that he was available should she need a ride. He did not appreciate the sudden punch to the balls. It had been completely uncalled for. A simple ‘no thanks’ would’ve done the trick.
Charles huffed with the memory as Toa turned. As if on a hinge, his shoulders swiveled, sparing one glance for the new arrival. She gave him a scorching glance and licked her lips, probably desperate for a drop of his blood. Toa turned back to Sasha just as slowly, somehow failing to get wood. Unlike Charles.
“Walk through the sphere please, so you can try it.” Toa elegantly gestured Sasha toward the floating ball. “You only seem to learn when you experience something. I am simply instructing in the approach that is most likely to be received.”
“Okay, but what’s the point of it?” Sasha asked dubiously, stalling. “You can see it. Why would someone just walk into a magical ball? I think I’d avoid it.”
