Shifter Magick (2 page)

“Tori is going to help me dress like a skank.” Rebecca announced.

Tori
spun on her heals holding one of Rebecca’s low cut shirts and gasped. “I am not.” Her face had turned bright pink.

“What would you call it then?” Rebecca asked. She sat down on her bed and planted her face in her hands.

Tori stood taller at the challenge. “Cute.” She began before she turned around and continued digging through Rebecca’s clothes. “Desirable, eye catching…”

“Whatever you want to call it.” Rebecca brushed her off playfully before she turned her attention back to Kera. “She is helping me get a date.” Her smile blossomed into a fairytale dreamy look that Kera associated with the little mermaid and Cinderella. Rebecca acted like she was waiting for someone to tell her the princess kissed the prince and they lived happily ever after.

“Kera you should come.” Tori said. “I could use another girl on the team.”

Already shaking her head no, Kera put it into words. “No thanks. I don’t party.”
The smells, the crowd, the mix of people her age without inhibitions made her squirm just thinking about it. High school had been bad enough. Kera couldn’t and wouldn’t put herself through that again. She didn’t deserve to be jealous of normal. She accepted herself as abnormal and got on with life. That didn’t mean she had to watch others flaunt it.

Rebecca stood back up when Tori tossed her an outfit. “Come on, everyone parties. We don’t do drugs or anything, just a few drinks at a frat house or something.” Rebecca dropped her pants and pulled on a pink mini skirt.

Kera looked away quickly. Guess her roommate wasn’t shy about her body. “I don’t drink.” Kera told them as she stared at the ceiling.

“What?” Tori exclaimed. “Never?”

“Nope.” It wasn’t that shocking was it?
Surely there were other reasons not to drink other than being… different.

“Then you have to come!” Rebecca proclaimed. “You will have a blast. If you do something stupid we’ll be there to cover for you. Plus all you have to say is that you’re drunk and everyone understands.”

Tori huffed. “You promised I wouldn’t have to babysit you tonight.”

Rebecca smiled. “I’ll behave but Kera didn’t promise anything.”

“I thought you were trying to find a date tonight.” Kera tried to change the subject as butterflies began to fill her stomach to a painful level.

Tori turned to the mirror and applied lip gloss to her lips. When she finished she turned to Kera with a serious expression. “I have my own date to find.” She informed her. “But don’t worry, we know some pretty prestigious guys.”

“Don’t think about going for Nick, Tori has dibs on him.” Rebecca announced.

“Shut up.” Tori hissed. She turned to Kera with a pained smile like she wanted her to believe Rebecca was making things up.

Kera couldn’t imagine trying to keep up with these girls for a whole night. She was already exhausted. “I have an early class and I drove all day. I really just want to hit the sack.”

Rebecca laughed. “Next time.”  She made it sound final.

“Maybe.” Kera retorted.

Tori shrugged her shoulders and checked herself out in the full length mirror before they left the room.

Kera found herself smiling over the carefree nature they had. She
had been lik
e that before. Her mood turned sour quickly.
Never again.
Kera had to follow logic and reason and worry about the consequences of her actions.

Kera dressed for bed and hesitated to put away the last thing she needed to unpack. She looked at her almost empty suitcase and knew she was being silly. How else would she explain the dread she felt for the object inside, or the closeness she felt to it? She reached in and opened the old box and ran her fingers over the cold metal that was casted in the shape of an old key. Since her mother’s death, she hadn’t the courage to look at it.

On her sixteenth birthday she had ripped off the ribbon and scoffed at the present. Now she wished she had been grateful. Gifts weren’t about the object but all about the giver. Her mother deserved to be thanked for her kindness.

Kera wiped her eyes. She quickly shut the box and tucked it into the inside pocket of her purse.
She was exhausted.

That night the dreams started up again.
She dreamed of strange abilities and monsters. This is where her beast roamed, when she wouldn’t let it out to run free.
She tossed and turned but
only
the memory of her mother’s voice finally comforted her. She sang a lullaby.

             
Kera woke up the next morning without an alarm. She dressed without
stirring
Rebecca from her obvious coma. She was tempted to pull a blanket over her or at least put the other foot on the bed with her. She probably had
drunk
too much despite her promise.

After glancing at her schedule, then the clock, Kera realized she still had time before she had to leave for class. She sat in front of the mirror and flipped on the flat iron. It wasn’t hers but she didn’t consider an appliance something she had to ask to use.

Call it vanity or nerves, but Kera was embarrassed at the lack of makeup and style she had. Rebecca had two bags full of eyeliner and shadow
and Kera hadn’t worn the stuff since she was
fifteen
.

Hair though, was a happy medium. She straightened her hair and realized the outcome made her look different. Her hair fell below her shoulder blades. She smiled softly and made a note that she looked better with straight hair rather than a messy pony tail.

Kera grabbed her things and locked up before she headed out. In the stairwell she could hear different noises from the other floors. She was usually really good at blocking out the clutter but with all of the new sounds, she found it
was harder to ignore.

It made her wonder if they had reverse hearing aids. Maybe she could stick cotton in her ear to bring her super hearing back down to
a
normal
level
.

Shaking her head, Kera pushed the lobby doors open and walked out into the early morning air. The sun hadn’t fully made its way into the sky yet leaving a gorgeous red glow on the morning clouds. The mountains surrounded the college in almost all directions creating a sort of solitary nook for the
school to operate. The trees and other greenery that grew at the base of the mountain crept all the way up to the edge of the campus. The breathtaking sight of nature relaxed Kera. Her father couldn’t have picked a more beautiful place for her to reside for the next two years.
Even if he had done it in a way she wasn’t happy with.

She found her class earlier than she expected. She could make another round of the campus but she decided to find a seat instead. She pushed open the door and immediately sucked in a breath of surprise. There were almost one hundred seats in the room. Would all of them be filled? She hadn’t thought about how difficult it would be to listen to a professor while one hundred hearts beat in a room. All her previous credits were from online classes.

Standing for a moment for the shock to wear off, Kera wondered where she should sit. She rolled her eyes and picked a seat next to the door. Just in case she had to leave. She pulled out her text book and groaned. Her voice echoed around the room. Clamping her teeth shut she
flipped through the pages of the same course book she used for one of her online classes. The college accepted her quickly just not all of her credits. She should be a senior. At only twenty and a 4.0 GPA, the dean had said she would need to redo her junior year to be able to graduate with a degree in psychology.

She had an exceptional memory and didn’t see anything so far she needed to redo.

The door opened and slammed shut behind her. The force propelled a scent toward her. Kera closed her eyes and inhaled. It was sweet and masculine. Ponderosa pine and motor oil. Kera smiled and looked behind her. Her breath caught and she turned away quickly.

Compelled, she looked again, this time more boldly.

Her eyes lingered on him as he walked. He was over six feet tall and walked with grace that a man usually didn’t possess. He walked like he was trained to be proper but tried to hide it. His brown
hair was cut short and he wore jeans and a simple black shirt that molded to his chest. Kera lingered on the defined muscles as she took a deep breath.

He glanced her way as he walked by but didn’t linger like she had.

Somewhat offended, Kera looked back at her book and stared at the words without reading them.
She stayed like that until the class was almost full. Pretending to be busy was one of her gifts.

“Hi Maddox.”
Kera heard the sweet preening voice and looked up.
A f
ew rows down, next to her attraction
, was a pretty girl dressed in a jean skirt and low cut sweater. She had tall boots and long brown hair. Kera frowned at the realization that this girl was the opposite of her in every way.

Even so, she couldn’t look away.
Was that his name? Maddox? Kera thought about it for a moment and decided it fit him well.

Maddox tilted his head to the girl and shifted in his chair. His pen tapped against his leg and one foot bounced in rhythm. She didn’t hear him say anything before he looked back at his paper.

Did he smile at her?
Kera wondered. Or was he rudely ignoring her? If he didn’t have any interest in that girl then Kera could take a hint. She didn’t have a chance.

Not like she wanted one. There wasn’t a way to have a relationship with someone without lying to them and that wasn’t her idea of a relationship.

Sadly, the girls face turned pink with embarrassment and she walked away from him like nothing happened. Maddox was twirling his pin between his fingers and looking at his paper. He must have been writing something in his notebook before he was interrupted. Kera wished she had a good angle to see what it said.

She gave up
when
the professor came in and began class.

“I’m Professor Franklin and welcome to advanced research methods in psychology,” he began. His white hair was cut short and almost matched his grey suit. “In some of your early semesters you learned the value of non experimental research. Now everyone knows
it is
okay
be silent
so you can hear the important information in the world around you. Jane likes to talk about her phobias because she had a million good reasons why it makes since to her. If you listen to the ‘why,’ which is the explanation of the control Jane has on her illness, you as her psychologist can help determine the ‘what.’ This is the description of her illness. With the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ put together a drug, situation change or correctional research can be implemented to help her.
”

The professor said all this as he wrote his name of the chalk board.
Kera smiled as he continued.
“On a larger scale
,
a corporation
may want to remove free coffee from a number of break rooms. They want to know if this is a good idea for productivity. Case studies can be used as market research to help determine this.”

As class progressed, Kera found s
he didn’t even notice half of the students moving around and making noise. See, she could do this.

Maddox shifted in his seat. Kera hadn’t realized she was keeping track of him until then and now that he had her attention she couldn’t concentrate. He was looking down at his notebook still. Was he making note
s or writing something personal?

A love letter?

In the midst of looking at him, Kera felt the beast inside of her stretch. Every muscle in her body tensed. Kera felt her heart rate race in sudden anticipation of the change. She gripped her book back and readied herself to exit.

She spared on last look at Maddox at the same moment he
turned around
. His eye
caught her
s
like he knew she was watching him. Kera stopped breathing and flushed as hot as a volcano. His eyes were cold ice blue but captivated her
despite
her embarrassment for being caught watching him.

For that moment she was enslaved. His eyes were an illusion
. They were as cold as the ice blue color of his iris and sharp with intelligence.
She would have assumed he was a cold statue, unfeeling and granite, but when she looked further the ice was a deception to what lay beneath. He was power.
He was warmth.

Kera sighed.

Maddox looked down for a moment, releasing Kera from the entrapment of his eyes, and then he glanced back at her as he tapped his pen quickly on the notebook making little noises in rhythm with her heartbeat.

Kera hadn’t looked away.

He must think she was crazy.
Maybe she was to be this enthralled with someone she had never met before. Kera hadn’t dated anyone. Just when she started to feel strongly for boys her mother had died and her life changed forever.