Devi: Matefinder Book 2 (6 page)

                “You okay?” she asked.

                I sighed. “Just thinking about Emma. I mean, Kai told me about what happened to Max’s wife, so it’s hard not to think about it.” Max, Kai’s best friend and previous second in command had lost his wife and baby in labor years ago.

                Diya looked down, lost in thought. “Labor is hard and dangerous, even for a human. But I’m going to do everything I can to help Emma. It’s horrible what happened to Max. I can’t imagine losing my mate like that. Then to live the rest of my life alone, knowing they were gone.”

                Well … That reminded me of Tara. I had a vision at Diya’s wedding that Max had a new mate, Tara. One of Diya’s friends.

                “Diya, have you ever heard of someone having two mates?” I asked her.

                Diya laughed and rummaged through my make-up. “That’s ridiculous, Aurora. Even more ridiculous coming from the Matefinder.”

                “I mean, what if your mate died?”

                “Then you live the rest of your life alone,” she said with certainty.

                I frowned. “You don’t think Spirit would bless you with another mate?”

                Diya stopped what she was doing and came closer to me. “What’s going on with you? You don’t want kids right away, you’re talking about having two mates. Are you and Kai okay?”

                I sighed and ran a brush through my long hair. “Kai and I are fine. He knows I don’t want kids right away. I’m just doing a lot of thinking lately. Destiny, mates, reincarnation. Do you believe in reincarnation?” What Gretchen and Sylvia had said got me thinking.

                Diya smiled and applied some lip gloss. “Aurora, I’m Indian, my people practically invented reincarnation.”

                I smiled back. “It sounds nice. You get another chance to come back and I dunno … do stuff you didn’t do right before.”

                “Yeah, it sounds nice, for the humans that reincarnate. My people don’t say anything about werewolves reincarnating.” Diya laughed.

                Okay. Clearly I wasn’t going to get into some deep soulful conversation with Diya. Instead, I let her do my make-up and talk about babies. But it was a nice idea. There was this girl Becky in grade school that I had made fun of for always having a snotty nose. Maybe if I reincarnated, I could be nice to her in the next life. I liked the idea of righting my wrongs.

                I smelled Kai before I saw him. Given that Diya was doing my make-up, I probably looked like a prostitute.

                “Whoa,” Kai said when he walked into the bathroom and saw me.

                Yep, prostitute. “What’s up?” I asked.

                “Kaden and Chase have settled into a property on our borders. The distance from the pack is good for Kaden, but being in the pack is good for Chase.”

                I smiled. “Good job, Alpha.”

                “I’m pregnant,” Diya blurted out. Crap, I forgot about her news. She probably wanted some alone time with her brother.

                “Diya! So soon? Okay. No, I’m happy but … yeah that makes me think about how you got pregnant and … yuck. But congrats!” he said awkwardly.

                “Gee thanks, brother.” Diya stood and Kai hugged her.

                “I’m happy, I am. You will be well protected and provided for.”

                “I know that, Kai.” Diya kissed his cheek. “Spend some time with your mate. She is asking me crazy questions about reincarnation and stuff. She needs a guru.”

                I spit my tongue out at her as she left.

                “Reincarnation?” Kai raised his eyebrows.

                “Yeah, just pondering life.” I stood and kissed his cheek. It left a red lipstick mark. “I’ve got healing affinity training at Sylvia’s. I’ll catch you later?”

                Kai caught my gaze. “In India we believe couples that marry stay together for at least seven lifetimes. Hopefully this is our first and we have six more to look forward to.”

                He was trying to make me feel better. He didn’t want me to feel weird for asking about reincarnation. God, I loved him.

                “That sounds nice.” I smiled.

                “Have fun at witch class. Tonight we spy on some vampires.”

             I took a glance in the mirror. Yep, prostitute make up.

                Gretchen was at Sylvia’s when I got there. They were arguing inside as I walked up. My werewolf ears picked up on the tail end of it.

                “Well then, why don’t we test her and find out? She deserves to know, so she can prepare,” Gretchen said.

                “Shhh, I feel her!” Sylvia hushed her.

                Okay, awkward. I knocked.

                “Come in, dear,” Sylvia said sweetly. She felt like family to me. I knew she was trying to protect me and as much as I loved living in denial, maybe I needed to find out more about this Devi thing.

                I walked in and was surprised by a small white kitten. It was sitting on a pillow on Gretchen’s lap. It purred when it saw me.

                “Oh my god! She is so cute!” The kitten leapt off of the pillow and trotted over to me. I picked her up. Her fur was so soft. She had one blue eye and one green.

                “She is yours,” Gretchen stated.

                “What? Mine? I love her!” I let her nuzzle my neck. Holding a kitten seemed to take all of my worries away.

                “First lesson of today: animals have the power to heal. Cats add energy to a home and assist in healings. Luna is a descendant of my greatest healing cat, Venus. She will serve you well.”

                Would Kai care if I brought a cat home? No. Probably not.

                “Thank you so much,” I told her.

                There was silence lingering in the air. Sylvia was rolling the fringe of a pillow in her fingers.

                “So, I heard what you guys said about testing me for the Devi thing.”

                Sylvia sighed. “I figured you did.”

                “So what kind of test is there, to see if I am one? If I am, what does it mean?” Was I really going down this road?

                “It would explain why you are so powerful. Matefinder, witch with two affinities, werewolf and witch simultaneously,” Sylvia offered. “The test is not to be taken lightly. It’s a Native American ritual that goes back for generations. Your friend Nahuel could help you.”

                “And if I am? I die once the vampire war has ended? I leave Kai behind, Safe Haven, my mom? All of the good things I have done on this Earth get left behind?” I didn’t realize how angry I was until that very moment. If the Universe thought it could incarnate me into a body and have me build this wonderful life just to leave it behind, then it was about to be sorely mistaken. I wasn’t leaving until I was ready. Until I had experienced at least 100 holidays with Kai, had a couple kids, worked my shit out. A glass jar full of herbs on Sylvia’s desk rattled.

                “Calm down, sweetie,” Sylvia reminded me.

                I took a deep breath and the jar stopped shaking.

                “If you are a Devi, it means a higher more advanced soul has attached to your human body and joined your soul. They join a human soul during a moment of weakness, such as your car accident. Then they empower the soul with many gifts, such as two affinities, powerful abilities, and other gifts. Once they have restored the balance, they leave and the process usually takes the human’s life.”

                My mouth hung open.
Attached to my body.
What the hell! I jumped up and shook my body. I felt like ants were all over me. “Get it off!” I shouted.

                Sylvia came closer and smiled a little. “Devis are good spirits, don’t worry.”

                I shuddered again. “You said they
usually
take the human’s life when they leave.”

                “Usually, yes. As you know, witches are the keepers of supernatural knowledge. We have limited knowledge on these types of stories. A handful of documented cases in all of history.”

                “So some soul might be attached to me? Like right now?” I shivered. That was some freaky shit. “Seriously, can we get it off? Like do a spell?”

                Sylvia smiled a little. “Devis are good souls. They are like angels. They wouldn’t make you do anything you didn’t want to do. They usually attach to other good souls. If you
are
a Devi, I wouldn’t be surprised. You opened Safe Haven, and you are a vegetarian. These are all good traits a Devi would find worthy of encasing their soul. You should be honored.”

                “So, I don’t really have all of these powers, it’s the Devi?” I asked self-consciously.

                Sylvia shrugged, “It’s hard to tease them apart. I can say that if you are a Devi, one of you has the healing affinity and the other is the seer.”

                My eyes widened. I put the kitten down. “Okay, I’m officially freaked out now. Can we stop talking about this?”

                What the hell? Did I want to wait to have kids because a Devi was inside me telling me to wait or because I really wanted to wait? My wolf came to the surface then. My eyes glowed yellow. No one was separating me from Kai. I don’t care if she was an angel.

                Gretchen backed up a little. “Sweetheart, I don’t think your energy is good for healing today. Would you like to meditate instead?”

                Of course I didn’t have good healing energy! You just told me my body might have been highjacked by an angel and that I would die when they were done with me. But Gretchen was nice. She was trying to help me and learning healing powers would help my pack.

                “Sure,” I said with a little reluctance.

                One hour later I came to one conclusion. Meditation was not for the verbally gifted. I had always been a talker. Got in trouble in class for chatting up my friends, had boyfriends tell me to shut up more than once. I was verbose, no doubt about it. It was impossible to keep quiet inside my head. I had too many thoughts. Trying to ‘quiet my mind’ was impossible, but I did feel more relaxed.

                Gretchen handed me a thick book as she walked me to the living room. I opened it and saw that it was some kind of picture anatomy book. The human form without skin. I shivered.

                She chuckled. “I want you to study this. The more you know about the human body, the better you can visualize. The better you can visualize, the better you can heal.”

                I nodded. “Makes sense. Thank you.” I hugged her. I felt calm and at peace as she squeezed me, healer perk.  I picked up Luna, and Sylvia helped me carry her cat box out to the car. I agreed with her that I would talk to Nahuel about testing me for this Devi thing.

                As I drove back to the house, I wished I knew where Alexa was staying. She said it was in Sandy. I wanted to check on her, make sure she was okay. I pulled up to our front lawn to find Kai, Max, Jai, and Akash huddled around a remote-controlled two-foot tall helicopter with a huge black net. Boys and their toys. I grabbed Luna and walked over to meet them.

                “What is that?” I pointed to the helicopter thing.

                Luna took one look at Kai and hissed. Her claws came out and I nearly dropped her.

                “What is that?” Kai asked me, looking at Luna.

                “It’s a kitten. Don’t scream, you’re scaring her.”

                Max tried to cover a laugh. Jai was motioning behind Kai but I couldn’t figure out what he was trying to tell me. Luna was in full freak out mode. Arching her back and hissing. I ran to the front door and threw her inside before closing the door. I looked down at my bloody, scratched arms. They healed quickly before my eyes. Werewolf perk.

                “What are you doing putting it in the house? Let it go,” Kai told me.

                I looked at Kai, confused. “Let her go? She’s my cat. My healing witch mentor gave her to me. Her name is Luna.”

                The veins in Kai’s neck were protruding. “Aurora, I love you, but I’m a werewolf. I’m not sharing my house with a kitten!” he roared.

                “They have good energy! I’m keeping her,” I roared back and put my hand on my hip.

Max and Devon walked away. Akash and Jai busied themselves off to the side of the house.

                Kai walked over to me. “Aurora, I adore your animal loving spirit, but I’m not sure you have thought this through. That kitten recognizes me as a predator. An Alpha. We will never get along. She won’t get along with any of the wolves. She will be stressed and in fear for her life all of the time. Do you really want to do that to her?”

                He was looking at my lips. I smirked. “No, but she isn’t scared of me. Maybe you just need to be nicer. Send her good vibes.”

                His deep belly laugh made me grin.

                “God, I love you.” He picked me up and I straddled his waist. He pulled my hair back exposing my neck and kissed it softly.

                He placed his forehead on mine. “She likes you because you are part witch.”

                I sucked his bottom lip and he groaned. “So, can I keep her?”

                His voice was gruff. “She can stay in the guest room, but that’s it. Don’t let her out. She might get eaten.”

                “Yes, sir. Now what is that?” I joked as I climbed off of him and examined the helicopter.

                “It’s a drone catcher. We are going to remove this RAIDOS problem once and for all,” he stated with pride. “The RAIDOS drones have fan blades like this one. We fly this net near theirs and it gets caught. I bring it down to the ground and smash it. Do this until they are all gone. It has a Wi-Fi camera and heat sensing, so I can spot theirs. All state of the art.”

                I nodded, impressed.

                “Speaking of RAIDOS, how is you know who? Any word?” I was really getting worried about Alexa.

                He shook his head and lowered his voice. “No, but I’m worried. She has gone out of her way to help us. Once I take out these drones, I want to offer her protection.”

                I nodded. “I agree. What are we doing about the vampire attack on Safe Haven?”

                His eyes glowed yellow. “We’re going old school.”