Adopted by The Owl: The Owl Shifter Chronicles Book One

by Qatarina Wanders

  “I’m not sure I want you reporting this.” Emily tousled her hair. “I mean, my life is at stake here. I want things silent.”

  Emily suspected the reason for Rina and Joanna’s argument earlier on was for Rina to remain silent over her discovery of Emily’s nature. Now she was asking the same thing of Rina. She knew it was a long shot, but she tried anyhow.

  Rina shook her head. “I’m not asking you, Emily. I’m telling you. I have the upper hand here. I can tell the vigilantes what I saw or I can tell them when you’ve accomplished your mission and had enough time to either leave the town or prepare for your gruesome death. Your choice.”

  Joanna surged to her feet. “That’s it. You’re out of here.”

  “Hold on,” Emily stopped her.

  Joanna pursed her lips and glared at Emily. “Don’t tell me you’re considering allying with this ruthless bitch.”

  Emily bit her lip. “It’s not like I have a choice. She’s brilliant. We could use her help.”

  “Yeah, but we can’t trust her!” Joanna complained.

  Emily smiled weakly. “Of course, we can’t. She just told us she’s going to stab me in the back.”

  They both looked at Rina, who shrugged. “Well, at least you’ll see it coming.”

  Joanna rolled her eyes and sighed. “When do we start?”

  “Are you sure you want to get involved with this?” Emily asked Joanna. “This warlock is very powerful. He’s a rove.”

  “A what?” Rina asked.

  “A rove,” Emily repeated. She explained what a rove was. “Something tells me your panic button is not going to cut it.”

  “I don’t care,” Joanna said. “I’m not going to let you go after this warlock alone. I’m going with you. Don’t even try to stop me.”

  Joanna held Emily’s gaze for a long time. Emily thought of a million and one things to say to try and dissuade Joanna’s intentions. As she did, she thought of a million and one things Joanna would say in rebuke. There was no getting Joanna to change her mind.

  “Okay,” Emily concurred. “But if we do this, we’re doing this my way. I’m the only supernatural here. I’m the only one who can take him on. No heroics. You both do what I say, when I say. And when push comes to shove, you run like hell. Those are my terms.”

  “Whatever, Emily,” Rina said, biting the inside of her cheeks.

  “Got it,” Joanna concurred.

  “Good.” Emily clapped her hands together once for emphasis.

  You’re wrong, though, The Owl said after a lengthy silence. There’s no way you can defeat the rove. You might as well surrender now.

  “Gee, Owl, thanks for the vote of confidence,” Emily groused. Both Rina and Joanna looked at her as though she’d lost her mind.

  “I talk to her.” Emily jutted out her chin and smiled a bit maniacally. “Weird, I know.”

  25

  Rina joined in helping Emily and Joanna clean up the house later. They worked well into the early hours of the next day. No one said anything about The Owl or the warlock or anything supernatural. They’d had enough scares for one night.

  They talked mostly about guys. Sports. Fashion. Music. And, of course, high school gossip.

  Emily learned a lot about Rina. Plenty of things she never knew. For instance, she learned that Rina’s father was a popular rock star—like worldwide popular. He was even nominated for a Grammy the previous year. She also learned that Rina’s mom was an editor for the New York Times. In fact, it was her mom’s inspiring career that set Rina on the path to be a world-renowned journalist.

  Every time she spoke, Emily could hear it in her voice—that drive to impress her parents. To make Daddy proud. To live up to Mom’s accomplishments. Emily remembered when she’d had the same drive. Back then, she hadn’t known about Mom’s true nature, and Dad was still sane. Now she was as good as orphaned. Mom was dead. Dad was an imbecile.

  She was all alone. The only drive she’d had before now was the drive to stay alive. The drive to keep her pitiful life of fame in high school. Now she had grown. She was a better person. After the series of life-changing visions she’d had through the night, she realized there were more important things than being Little Miss Sunshine at school.

  Emily shared a little of her background with Rina. Now that the cat was out of the bag, she shared with them what happened on the night of Mom’s death. She shared with them all she’d learned, all The Owl had told her.

  She went on to tell them how she’d been leaving town every month to transform. It was supposed to relieve the pressure and give her another month of control. A lot of what she was saying was news to both of them, so they silently listened with rapt attention.

  They all knew about shifters. They’d read the news of their deaths and their entrails at the town’s center. But this was a first for them; having a one-on-one with an actual shifter. They were seeing the life of an actual shifter—this time not through the lens of public opinion, or the biased monocle of the vigilantes, but from the other side of the looking glass. From the driver’s seat of the vehicle.

  By the time the house was spic and span, the girls settled for tea in the living room. Miraculously, the only thing that was broken was a vase that Joanna had gotten to make the living room look cool. Emily had ended up packing the broken pieces into the trash.

  They sipped their mugs of tea in silence. Dawn had already broken through the darkness. The neighborhood was slowly waking up. Emily and Joanna were locked in a snug little hug on the couch while Rina was enveloped in the armchair to the side.

  “I didn’t know you were going through all this,” Joanna finally said. “You should have told me.”

  “Believe me, I wanted to,” Emily said. “I just—”

  “Didn’t trust me?” Joanna said. The hurt in her voice was evident. “We’ve been friends since before we were old enough to walk, and you don’t trust me?”

  “It’s not like she doesn’t have a reason not to trust you,” Rina said. “I’m not saying I’m any better, but you, Joanna, you’re definitely not one to trust.”

  “Er—” Emily started.

  “No, let her talk,” Joanna said, cutting Emily off.

  “You fund the very institution that has sworn to kill people like your best friend,” Rina reasoned. “And before you say it’s your father’s money, let me ask you, how many times have you stood up to him? How many times have you asked him to stop?”

  “None,” Joanna replied, her voice set on edge.

  “Exactly my point,” Rina said. “She couldn’t trust you because she saw you as one of the cold-blooded monsters who murdered her mother.”

  “Er, not really—” Emily started again, but Joanna silenced her with a pinch on her arm.

  “Your stance on the issue of supernaturals was clear,” Rina said. “Or should I say is clear because we still don’t know what you plan to do with your knowledge of Emily. At least we’re on the same page as to my intentions.”

  “And what are they, exactly?” Joanna asked, anger evident in her eyes.

  “Look, I can’t not print what I know,” Rina said. “I’m first a reporter before an anti-vigilante activist. While I condemn the act of killing innocent people because they’re different, I believe everyone deserves to know the truth.”

  “The truth about a person’s condition?” Joanna asked.

  “Is that what you think it is?” Rina asked with a chuckle. “You think your best friend has a condition?”

  Joanna waved aside Rina’s jab. “You can tell yourself whatever you want, Rina, but the truth is you print that story about Emily, and you might as well have cast the first stone.”

  “It’s not that simple,” Rina said after a moment’s thought.

  “Oh, it’s damn simple,” Joanna spat.

  There was silence.

  “How about you?” Emily asked Joanna, her voice stifled by her pounding heart. “What are you going to do about me?”

  Joanna looked Emily i
n the eyes. “Oh, Dearie, nothing, of course. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.”

  “But you can’t tell anyone,” Emily coaxed. “Not even your precious dad.”

  Joanna didn’t seem to like that. “He can help you. He’s got very powerful friends.”

  “He’s your dad,” Emily said. “He can do whatever he wants. You can’t tell anybody, especially not him.”

  Joanna struggled with the instruction for about a minute. During that time, the tension in the room spiraled to the roof. Then she huffed, “Okay, whatever, no one. But you’re missing a big opportunity here, just so you know.”

  Emily only shrugged. The less people who knew about her . . . nature, the safer it would be for her. She glanced at Rina. “So are you going to tell us what you know about the warlock?”

  Rina placed her mug on the center table. “So far, I’ve not been paying a lot of attention to Michael’s visions. Honestly, I thought it was an elaborate joke or the guy’s insatiable need to be important. You know he’s got an inflated ego—”

  “Focus, Rina,” Joanna quipped.

  Rina hissed back and said, “Anyway, I never really paid him much attention. At first, he was talking about these visions he’s been having. Then he started stalking your house, trying to prove his visions.” Rina rolled her eyes. “But you were just too good for him. Or it was a stroke of luck. He never caught you doing anything. So he had no proof.”

  Emily had figured all this out. What she needed to know was about the warlock. “And the warlock, Rina?”

  “In his frustration, he started having these visions. He saw you on that slab. Just exactly the way you described it. Only he saw you die in the vision. He saw himself weeping in the vision. It was as if he’d lost something.”

  “Something like . . . ?” asked Emily, completely enraptured by Rina’s tale.

  “He wouldn’t say,” replied Rina. “I think he didn’t know. Then he said something about the creature of darkness materializing into a stunningly beautiful man. Raven hair. His eyes were like glowing orbs. Whatever that means. He was tall, regal, and debonair.”

  “He knows what the warlock looks like?” asked Joanna.

  Rina nodded. “He said the warlock told him some things. I can’t remember what he said. But he looked shaken up when he told me.”

  “We need to find out exactly what’s been happening to Michael,” Emily said finally. “For some reason, he’s seeing these visions. Maybe it’s because he’s close to the vigilante chief. I believe the warlock is baiting him—the chief, that is—through his son.”

  “The vigilantes are very dangerous,” Joanna said. “The warlock would be stupid to bait them.”

  “Except he doesn’t consider them a threat,” Rina pointed out. “And if he doesn’t, then we’re so screwed.” She looked at Emily. “You’re so screwed.”

  She’s right, The Owl said. We can’t take on a rove.

  “The vigilantes ran supernaturals out of this town once,” Joanna admitted. “It’s not going to cost much for them to run this warlock out now that they have better equipment and more fighters.”

  “Yeah, but if history serves me right, during that time, they never faced a witch or warlock,” Rina pointed out. “Not to mention a rove.”

  “Is that true?” Joanna asked, unsure.

  Rina nodded. “You can look it up. Witches and warlocks rarely stray far from their ancestral lands. Their magic rises and falls on their presence or absence from their home turf. If witches and warlocks are naturally at the top of the food chain, where do you think those whose powers aren’t bound by location are on the food chain?”

  Emily gaped at Rina. “How do you know all this?”

  “I’ve reported on supernaturals many times,” Rina said casually. “Perhaps I’m good friends with your aunt.”

  Emily’s jaw dropped.

  “Anyway, my point is, if the warlock is baiting the vigilantes,” Rina went on, ignoring the shock on Emily’s face. “Then they don’t stand a chance. They’ll get massacred as if they’re nothing.”

  “If that’s the case, what hope do we have of defeating this creature?” Joanna directed the question at Emily.

  It was a question Emily had no answer to.

  26

  “Well, that’s a question we need to solve ASAP,” Rina said as she got up. “This warlock is obviously—”

  Just as she started talking again, a bright orange light erupted an inch above the center of the table in their midst. It was like a little explosion as it came into being there in the living room. Everyone stared at it, awestruck.

  It brightened continuously for a few seconds before receding and then winking out of existence. It left in its place on the table a small parchment paper.

  No one moved or said anything for a long minute. Emily’s bones were rigid with fear. Joanna’s breath was caught in her respiratory tract. Even Rina was pale with fright.

  They all stared at the parchment. They didn’t need to touch it. They didn’t need to rise into the light. The writing on the parchment glowed. It was a simple statement.

  We’re watching you.

  Emily looked over her left shoulder at the corridor. There was no one there. She saw all the way through to the open back door and even into the backyard and past that to the woods in the background. Not a soul moved.

  It was already dawn.

  If they had been looking for proof that this was a warlock and not some prankster trying to get under their skin, this would be it. Emily didn’t really know what to think. In fact, she couldn’t think much at all. All she felt was a tremendous amount of fear pumping into her veins.

  Rina was the first person to recover. Color returned to her face as her teeth were set on edge. She walked to the table and picked up the parchment. She didn’t hold it for too long before it disintegrated into ashes in her hands—as though it had been burned by the orange light that delivered it.

  Joanna twirled on the couch to face Emily. “I don’t like this,” she stated. “I mean, what does he want with you?” The worry in her voice was contagious. “Why you? Why now? And you’re all alone.”

  Emily could tell that Joanna was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and it wasn’t helping Emily, who was trying to remain calm and objective. This was what the warlock wanted. He wanted them scared. He wanted them on the run. Why was it that sociopathic murderers always fed on fear?

  “Please, let’s get the vigilantes involved,” Joanna said. “My dad can protect you. We need them. We can’t take on someone who can do that . . .” She pointed at the place where the light had come on over the table. “I mean, he’s got mojo, Girl.”

  “I’m not exactly paralyzed myself,” Emily pointed out.

  “Babe, you shift into an Owl,” Joanna replied. “That’s not exactly a powerful gifting.”

  Excuse me! The Owl thundered in Emily’s mind. I will have her know that I’m the most powerful shifter in existence. And I’m at the top of the food chain right there with warlocks and witches.

  “Really?” Emily asked. For once, her word was relevant to Joanna’s and The Owl’s statement.

  “Yes!” Joanna said.

  Yes! The Owl replied. Then, Well, yes, after you’re Adopted, not before. So, bummer, I guess.

  “We need to stick to the plan,” Rina said. “We can’t throw away all our plans just because this dickhead of a warlock decides to send us a letter.

  “How are we going to react when he sends us a horde of locusts or a plague of maggots?”

  Emily and Joanna both stared at Rina, surprised.

  “Can he do that?” Joanna croaked.

  Rina gave a sinister laugh. “He can do a lot worse. Do you ever read?”

  Joanna threw her hands up in distress. “Exactly my point! We don’t know enough—”

  “—so we study and learn more,” Rina cut in.

  “No!” Joanna blurted. “No, we resort to the experts.” She grabbed Emily. “You have to trust me. My fathe
r will protect you. Let’s get the vigilantes on this guy and see if he comes after girls like us after that.”

  “I can’t risk it, Jo. I’m sorry,” Emily muttered. It was more to herself, to convince herself why she was going against Joanna’s desperate pleas, than it was for her friend.

  “And you can’t tell anyone,” Rina said. She chuckled and added, “Well, look who it is that we’re trying to get to remain silent.”

  Joanna glared at Rina.

  Rina rolled her eyes. “I believe the warlock is going to make a move soon. He didn’t reveal himself just to play games with us. That means whatever we do, we’ve got to be fast and smart. We need to be armed with knowledge as soon as possible.”

  “When are we getting the downlow from Michael about the warlock?” Emily asked.

  Rina shrugged. “Michael can be a bit temperamental. Let’s give it a week.”

  “Good. Let’s assemble at my aunt’s place this weekend.” Emily tapped her bottom lip with her finger as she spoke. “We’ll do our research there and come up with a plan.”

  “Are you even hearing yourself?” Joanna countered. “A plan? What are we, some superhero team?”

  “Don’t underestimate the power of The Owl.” Emily pointed to herself. “Or money.” She pointed at Joanna. “Or the press.” She then pointed at Rina. “I’d say that’s power enough.”

  “I’d say that’s being naïve,” Joanna retorted.

  The comment cut right into Emily’s heart. Ouch. She pushed the pain to the back of her mind. Clearing her throat, she said, “I can’t afford any other alternatives at the moment. Plus, I need the warlock. Even if the vigilantes are strong enough to defeat him, I need him. I need him to lift the spell off my dad.”

  Joanna sighed. “I think you’re being overly sentimental. You could get killed.”

  “Sentimental is all I got right now,” Emily replied with a harsh retort. Joanna was shocked, but Emily didn’t care. She was already tired of Joanna trying to dissuade her. She needed support, not antagonism. She knew the best course of action was to go this alone and not involve the authorities.