by Celeste Raye
Jazz had been afraid to tell anyone about her jump in powers. She didn’t want to draw attention to herself, or answer questions that she didn’t want to hear. All she could think about was how badly she wanted to get the answers that everyone else wondered. Where did she come from, and who died to give her the new powers she had?
They went in silence, and Jazz took a seat in the back of class. She didn’t want to be in the thick of things, and she was able to melt into the rest of the group. She wasn’t called on, which was a good thing, because Jazz wasn’t even paying attention. The test was eventually given out, and she was able to forget it all for a while.
Everything in Jazz’s life lately was up in the air. She didn’t like it. She wanted life to go back to normal. Like it was before all of the chaos started.
That night, Sarah had a date that she was excited about, and Jazz wished her luck. She wanted to get back to the room she shared with Sarah and finally have it to herself. As much as Jazz liked the Brighton Academy for Young Women, she was ready to move on and out. Jazz needed her own space.
Once she got into her room, she shut the door behind her and took a breath of fresh air. It was hard to be around someone all the time. Silence was precious in the school, and she was going to use every last bit of it.
Jazz wanted to know how much more powerful she was than before. There were several spells that she did quickly. Starting fire, moving things, turning out the lights. They all came to her quickly, but that wasn’t anything new. Jazz wanted to know what more she could do.
She started to make a magic ball in her hands, but then it got too big, and she had to drop it. It left a scorch on the floor when she dropped it, and she cursed, stomping on the fire that was still going underneath her feet. Jazz wasn’t used to that big of a ball, and she realized then that she was going to have to get another practice ground. As well as a rug.
There was a knock on the door moments later, and she knew that someone must have heard her putting the fire out, or worse yet, smelled it. She was going to have to explain what she was doing, practicing magic in an unsanctioned place. The last thing Jazz needed, was to get in trouble, on top of everything else.
She threw a towel over the burn mark and lit a candle that she then blew out. The smell of it was what she hoped would mask the smell of the burning carpet.
“Jazz, are you in there?”
It was the principal of the school and Jazz had no idea what it was that she wanted. She was really worried now. Her mind went to how her adoptive parents would react if she got expelled. Jazz would be a disappointment, and she couldn’t have that.
She went to the door and answered it.
“Yes?”
“We need you to come to the office. There is someone here to see you; someone that you’re related to.”
She smiled and shook her head. “You must be mistaken. I don’t have any family besides my adoptive family.”
The headmaster smiled and took her hand. “This is your family, Jazz. She has quite a story, and I think you should at least hear your aunt out.”
Jazz paused and smiled at the older woman.
“My aunt?”
She smiled a little brighter and started to steer her towards the office.
“I know, imagine my surprise when she told me that. I thought to myself, miracles really do happen.”
Jazz wanted to be happy, she really did. But then again, it was a big coincidence that it was now, right after she had gained so much power. There was a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she couldn’t shake.
It was only when she was almost to the office, that she noticed something in the woman’s eyes. It was a glitch, or at least, that’s what Jazz had heard it called. There was a glow in the middle of the pupil that wasn’t supposed to be there. Jazz knew that she had to get out of there.
“I forgot something in class. I will be right back, okay?”
The principal started to protest, but she promised that she would be right back. Jazz just took off. She never listened to much that was taught to her, except the one piece of advice that had ever made sense to Jazz.
She was supposed to follow her gut—and her gut said to run.
Chapter Three
“Where is she, sister?”
“I don’t know. I will go back and get her again if you want.”
Marl growled and sighed. She knew that she was being impatient, but her power was so close to returning. Linda’s young daughter had been close enough that she had felt her sister’s powers, but then it was gone again. Marl had felt the loss, and now she was ready to meet the girl.
Jazz was her sister’s other child, the one that she hadn’t known lived. Marl had told her that the baby was born still, but she wasn’t. Jazz had just had a sleeping spell on her until Marl could get her handed off to someone that would keep the girl safe, but also let her cultivate her powers. She had thought of Jazz as a backup if she ever needed to get Linda to agree to something. It was also a way for Linda to move on. Marl hadn’t wanted her devoting all of her time to a child and getting it out of the way was easiest.
She waited a few more minutes before she sent the principal out to find the girl and bring her back there. All of her plans hinged on finding Jazz, getting her to bond with her willingly, with whatever means she could think of. Before long, the older woman came back without the girl.
“How hard is it to do as I ask?”
“I am sorry. She is gone. I don’t know where she went, but some of her things are gone from her room. I think she has left the school.”
Marl growled and tried to straighten herself out. It felt like every time she had a new plan; it was quickly destroyed. Now she was going to have to hunt her down. It wasn’t something that she wanted to do, but Marl knew it was necessary. All she had to do was find Jazz and then get her to make the bond with her. Then she could get her real powers back before it was too late.
As if on cue, Marl saw more age spots appearing on her hand. The man from the night before did not last her very long at all. This subsistence living was not going to cut it. What she needed, really needed, was to get back to the sister bond. She needed her life back.
Marl smiled at the principal and shut the door behind her. She didn’t want anyone to hear what was going to happen next. It wouldn’t take long, but it wouldn’t last very long either. At this point, she was just using people’s life force to hold up the glamour that was making it possible to move around unencumbered. Soon, that would be gone too.
Jazz wasn’t sure where she was going to go at first. She tried to think it through, but there wasn’t much to go off of. All there was, really, was this feeling in the pit of her stomach telling her that everything was all messed up. Jazz didn’t even know what she was running from except that it was a magical creature that had enough of the stuff to put a spell on her principal. There was no time to worry about her, though. She was going to have to worry about that later, for now, Jazz had to figure out what was next.
The first thought that came to mind was that she needed to go home: the first home that she remembered. It wasn’t fair, her life. Her first adoptive parents were witches, and they had died in a fire. After that, though, Jazz went to live with a shifter pack for many years before she got older and went to learn witchcraft from the local coven. It was run by nuns, and she had learned a lot. But her home, the first one she actually remembered, was with the Thompson Clan.
Jazz was nervous to go there because her leaving hadn’t been taken all that well. Her mother then, Cali, hadn’t wanted her to go. She wanted her to stay under the protection of the pack, but Jazz had picked differently. She thought that she needed to be with her own kind, but now she knew the truth. The pack had always been her family, first and foremost. Everything after that had been off of the foundation that had been built by the shifters.
She knew that she had hurt a lot of feelings when she had left, and there were many in the pack that blamed her for Cali’s heart proble
ms after. It was so much guilt for Jazz that she had stopped visiting, just so that she wouldn’t have to feel it anymore. She’d left when she was fifteen, and now seven years later, it was hard for her to go there.
When she arrived, she sat in her car for some time. She knew that they were already aware of her being there. Shifters had great senses, and they picked her up a half a mile back. She waited for someone to come out, but when no one did, she started to open the door.
She was greeted by a man that seemed rather angry that she was there.
“What are you doing here, witch? We don’t take kindly to your type out here. This is breaking the treaty.”
The man was handsome, even if he was a little angry, and Jazz needed a minute to collect herself. The flashing green eyes pulled her in, and she smiled at him, even though it was the wrong time for that.
“Did you hear me, witch? You need to get out of here, now!”
She wasn’t finding it so funny anymore. Had it really been so long, that she wasn’t even recognized anymore?
“Look, I don’t know who you are, but I wanted to speak to Cali. She will know who I am.”
The man stopped for a moment and backed up. “What do you want to speak to Cali for?”
This was not the greeting that Jazz had foreseen. She wanted to believe that she would be welcomed with open arms, even though it had been a while. Even though she had left. She was looking at the cute guy in front of her and realized that she needed to go about it a different way.
“Look, my name is Jazz. I used to live here for years; Cali was my mother.”
The man’s face changed, and it softened a little bit, but not much.
“Jazz?”
Chapter Four
Dennis didn’t think he was going to be shocked, but he was. He had smelled the witch coming, and it had pissed him off that she would dare get so close, but somehow, he hadn’t seen what was right in front of him. Those blue eyes that were tinged purple: how could he have not seen it? Had it really been that long?
The last time that Dennis had seen Jazz, she had been just a girl. The woman that was standing in front of him now was not the same. The prettiness of her youth had blossomed into a beauty that he couldn’t deny.
Her long black hair was sweeping down her shoulders, and her body had changed, gaining curves where she hadn’t had them before. Dennis was supposed to be saying something, doing something, but all he could do was stare down at her. She was tall for a woman, but he was still towering over her.
“You’re Jazz?”
“Yeah, like I said before, I used to live here, and I need to speak to Cali. Is she here? If it’s too late, I can come back later. I just need to see her as soon as I can.”
He stopped her from going on. “I know who you are. I will go get Cali. Or better yet, you can come with me to get her. We are on high alert over here. Had some witches that have been causing our kind some trouble. I thought that you were one of them.”
“I assure you that it’s not my intent.”
Dennis felt silly for how he had acted, but he felt almost as bad about how his body was responding to being next to her. It was hard for him to really think about things when all he could focus on was how beautiful she had become.
“I know, Jazz. I remember you from when you were here. It’s been a while. I don’t think any of us expected to see you again.”
“And who are you?”
“Dennis.”
She blanched a little bit, and Dennis wasn’t sure why that was. He didn’t seem to understand women all that well, but at least he had accepted it. It was easier to just put it down as unknown. That’s how women were to him, basically unknown when it came to the inner workings.
“Yes, like I said, I remember you.”
“Did you become Alpha?”
He was surprised that she remembered him and his destiny.
“Yes, I did.”
“So, this is your pack now?”
Dennis agreed, though he didn’t know where she was going with all of it.
“Yes, it is.”
“Good, maybe you will be able to help me, Dennis. I know that you don’t like my kind, but since you know where I come from, maybe you can help me figure out who they were exactly. I just got a rush of power and I don’t know where it came from. I am hoping for some help. Maybe you or Cali. I don’t know. I just need some answers, and this was the only place that I could think of.”
He felt bad for her, and as much as Dennis wanted to give her the answers, he was not going to be the one to do it. He had a lot to take care of, and though he’d heard whispers of many things through the years, none of it had been concrete. It wasn’t going to help if he was feeding her gossip. There was some sort of desperation in her eyes, and he wasn’t able to turn off the feelings that welled up inside of him.
“Well, I will bring you to Cali, and maybe she will have some answers. I am sorry to say that Chabert has passed on to another life. Thus, why we are so cautious when it comes to your kind now.”
She sighed and told Dennis that she used to be one of them. “I can’t help how I was born, Dennis, but I will always be part of the pack at heart. I am sorry that so much bad has happened. I just left school because someone bad was there for me. Maybe it was a witch. I couldn’t tell, because the school is full of them.”
Dennis didn’t know what to say to that. He didn’t want to guess. He wanted to ask her questions about where she had been and why she was back now, but Jazz had laid it all out pretty well. Now, he just had to digest it all.
This was at the same time he was trying hard not to be attracted to the woman in front of him. He could think of a million reasons why it was a bad idea to do anything else but take her to Cali and walk away. He’d learned firsthand that witches were far more trouble than they were worth, even beautiful ones, with sparkling eyes and a nice round butt.
He pulled his mind from his thoughts, glad that she couldn’t read them. He took her to the house that was as far back from the others as possible.
“I see that Cali still likes her privacy.”
“You know that she hasn’t changed that much. You have, though.”
“Have I?”
He stopped himself from going on, silently telling himself to calm down. Whatever was going through his mind wasn’t what he was expecting. Dennis knew that he shouldn’t put in his two cents about how he felt. That was something that he was going to have to keep to himself.
“Yes, you are different. Your hair or something. I didn’t recognize you when I first saw you, even up close.”
“Maybe it’s because I was so young when I left. I suppose that someone in your standing wouldn’t have paid much attention to the poor orphaned witch that your pack had taken in.”
Dennis didn’t argue the sentiment with her, but it was nowhere near the truth. He had paid attention to her, always had, because of some draw that he had to her. She was several years younger than him, so it hadn’t been anything romantic, just a general draw, like he was supposed to protect her. He was feeling that same feeling again. It didn’t make sense, and she was a powerful witch, but Dennis knew that he was going to put everything on the line to keep her safe.
When they got to Cali’s house, he knocked and called out to the old woman. She was one of the oldest in the pack, but she was still up at the hour. It was like she never slept, but Cali had told Dennis before that their need woke her up.
“Come in, Dennis. Bring that child to me. I haven’t seen Jazz in years.”
Jazz looked surprised that Cali knew she was out there, but Dennis didn’t. He didn’t know how she did it, how Cali had greater powers than everyone else. He just knew that she was the one that had them for a reason. The woman was wise beyond her years, even though she had lived to such an impressive age.
“Of course, Cali.”
Jazz was hesitant to go inside, but once she saw Cali, the two women embraced, and there were quickly tears to replace all of the other
emotions.
“Oh, honey, come here. I don’t know how to fix it, but you tell me what it is, and I will make it all better. I have been waiting for you to come home for a long time. How can I make it better?”
Jazz didn’t look like she thought it was ever going to get better. The two embraced for a long time, and finally, she pulled back and smiled at Cali. “I’ve missed you. You don’t know how much. They may have been my kind, but they were never my family.”
“Seems like you need to stay here for a while, child. Why don’t you go into the back bedroom? I have already made it up for you. It has that comforter on it that you’ve always liked.”
Jazz should have asked her why she had done all of that and how she had known that she was coming, but she wasn’t going to question it. She never had before. She had just known that it was Cali that saw everything. She didn’t need to know how, just that she was right.
“Are you sure that it wouldn’t be an imposition?”
Cali looked at Dennis. “Not at all. I think you’re going to like the changes that have been made around here, and I know that you’re going to be welcomed with open arms. Isn’t that right, Dennis?”
He tried not to look guilty. He hadn’t started it out that way, but he was going to try. Dennis wasn’t worried about getting along with her though; he was worried about getting along with her too well. She was a distraction that he didn’t need.
Not to mention, she was a witch. They were the enemy of his kind. Nothing more. Whatever he was feeling was wrong. He had to ignore it. It was just that simple. She wasn’t for him, and he had to repeat it to himself in the days to come, just to not get any crazy ideas in his head.
“Of course. Well, I will leave you two to it. I am glad that you were able to reconnect again.”
Jazz thanked him, but Dennis didn’t say anything else. He was in his own head, and all they saw was the scowl on his face. They didn’t see the stress that was being brought to him because of the witch’s presence.
