Shifting Shadows (Sparks Collide Trilogy) (22 page)

“Don’t care”
Logan
said “She’s not a criminal, you lost
the bet.”

“Yeah, yeah”
Brandon
said as he pulled out his wallet and
handed over two twenties to his brother.

“So you guys don’t want to hear the
rest?” Kira asked dazed.

“Of course we do” Demi chimed in. “Go
on, and ignore the bone heads.”

“Right.
It’s very important that you guys keep
my secret. If you can’t do that, please tell me now because I have to plan
accordingly.”

Mena looked at Kira like she had three
heads “Duh, we’ll keep your secret. Besides the fact that you have far worse
dirt on us, why the heck would we tell anyone? You’ve been nothing but kind to
us and clearly you’ve been keeping our secrets.”

“Actually, I knew Jay and possibly Doc
weren’t human last night but I only found today what you all are.” She
continued quickly “but of course I’ll keep your secret too.”

“Good, then it’s settled.” Mena said
and everyone around the table nodded in agreement.

“That’s not all though.” Kira added,
“I’m not sure how much you guys know about witches and warlocks but basically
we’ve been around since the beginning of time. Witches are the more powerful
gender but both witches and warlocks can possess potent magic.”

“That’s so cool” Demi said. It figured that
she would like how females were the stronger gender.

“There are a few ways magic is used.
One is a gifting which you are born with. Not every witch has a gifting but
many do. It’s inherent to the witch and can be preformed without words,
incantations, potions, or wands. My inherent gifting is Healing.”

“Truly?”
Max interjected “That’s tremendous. I
mean we heal at an accelerated speed because of our own nature but imagine what
we could do if we could heal others.”

Kira nodded “I can heal every living thing
but only to a certain extent. I’ve never pushed the limits of my healing
abilities to anything close to death because it is a dangerous road to go down
but I use my gifts to help when I can.”

I spoke up. I didn’t want to interrupt
but she didn’t seem to mind when everyone else had. “That’s why you want to be
a Vet, isn’t it? So you can heal animals.”

“Yes” she said nodding to me. “People
are too obvious when you heal them. They can speak and eventually figure out
what you did. Then they start pointing fingers at you…with animals, no one
knows the difference if you heal them because animals don’t speak.”

“Anyways, what a person chose to do
with magic used to be up to them. There is light magic that comes from life,
and dark magic that comes from death. The lines however are easy to cross
depending on your point of view. Some witches view one as good and the other as
evil but it’s not always that simple. Some of the kindest, best witches in
history immersed themselves in the dark arts and some of the worst, horrible
witches only preformed light magic. Some think that a quest for any knowledge
is positive and that they are just two sides of the same coin. Unfortunately
most witches no longer think that way.”

In that moment, everyone at the table
was completely enraptured in Kira’s story. They’d all even put down their food
to listen. We knew about witches of course and that they were in a war but we’d
never heard the history of it firsthand like this.

“About 30 years ago, things started to
change. A warlock named Zorlon became known as the head of all things light
magic. He was the descendent of many great witches and warlocks and he
possessed immense power. He garnered a large following of witches who wanted to
learn his ways and he created a board of members to join him in promoting light
magic only.

A powerful witch named Trella had also
gained a following as one of the most powerful dark witches and she flaunted
her connections to the dead. Zorlon used Trella as his focus point and turned
his campaign from light magic only to put an end to dark magic altogether.
Suddenly it was the trend to pick a side, did you practice light magic only or
were you a horrible dark magic witch that did unspeakable things. Rumors
floated around that if you so much as dabbled with dark magic, you were the
evilest of creatures. Zorlon’s campaign spread far and wide and his board grew.

History tells that Trella grew angry at
Zorlon’s accusations and it turned her bitter and dangerous. The recipe for
disaster exploded when Zorlon’s son and his son’s wife and children were
murdered. Zorlon blamed Trella and suddenly outspoken dark witches were found
burned alive in their homes. These events started the war between light and
dark witches.

Covens all over the world began
choosing sides, and if you didn’t choose you were automatically the enemy. My
parents had just married when their coven forced them to pick a side. My
parents both used light magic but they were unhappy to have their freedom to
choose taken away and didn’t care for Zorlon or his strict views. More
importantly they didn’t want to be in a war they didn’t believe in. They fled
and went into hiding hoping it blow over soon. They’re still waiting for that
day.

I’ve lived my entire life in fear of
being found by a witch of either side and be forced to a life of war or worse
be killed for being an undeclared witch. My parents taught me magic out of
necessity but we lived like humans for the most part.”

She took a deep breath winding down.
“I’d never seen another magic user besides my family until today. A warlock saw
me and spoke into my mind. I don’t know how he knew what I was, if he knew
who
I was, or if the meeting was coincidental or planned. All I know is that I used
magic last night when I walked in on Doc being attacked. I threw an offensive
spell on the intruder and he fled. I’m not sure how much you guys know but
magic has remnants that stay for varying periods of time unless removed. These
remnants can potentially be traced back to certain witches if you have the right
skill set or gifting.

I don’t know if that had a connection
to today or not but it’s a possibility that I was found through my spell
remnants.”

“I wouldn’t be sure of that, Kira.”
Will interjected. “Our sources are certain that the intruder was a human.”

“They could’ve been working for a
warlock or witch.” I said.

“True.” Will nodded.

I turned back to Kira. “I’m sorry we
can’t tell you more but we don’t know anything other than that. Now that we can
trust you with our secrets we’ll keep you informed too.”

“Thanks. I appreciate that. Anyway to
finish my story, today a warlock spoke into my mind, which is a rare skill,
asking me to stay and listen because he just wanted to talk. I didn’t stick
around for that particular conversation and then I ran into Jay and asked him
to trust me. I stole a car, spelling it open and then to start. Then in case I
was being tracked by that magic, I spelled the car to keep going until it
couldn’t go anymore and Jay and I jumped out of it. From there we walked until
we found civilization and a working phone and you know the rest.

I’m sorry I involved any of you in this
mess and I hope you can forgive me. If you want me to leave I understand
completely. Things can get pretty dangerous.”

I was surprised she left out the part
about Riley and thankful she left out our fighting. As far as her leaving, that
was so not going to happen. I spoke, and looked directly at her across the
table. “Let me get this straight, you saved my uncle and me from a killer and
now you’re apologizing for putting
us
in danger.”

“I just don’t want you involved in some
awful war because of me.”

“Yet we’re the reason you used the
spell, to protect us, yes or no?”

“Yes but you didn’t force me to do it.
I knew the consequences of using magic.”

“Those consequences include the reason
I’m sitting here today. I owe you my life but besides that there’s no danger
that would stop us from protecting you. Witch or not, you’re one of us.” We
locked eyes.

“Are you kidding? We love danger.”
Trent
said.

“Yeah, don’t threaten us with a good
time.”
Brandon
said and they high-fived.

“Kira, we’ve been in way worse
situations than a war. You’re not scaring us off that easy.” Demi said and
Will
put his arm around Demi and smiled in agreement.

“I told you, we’ve got your back.” Annabella
piped in.

Max and Mena nodded emphatically.

Kira looked as shocked as she looked
please. “Thank you…I, just…thank you.”

Logan
put an arm out to display the whole
table. “You just got yourself a pack of werewolf protectors, deal with it.”

“No matter what.”
I said and that was that.

I looked all around me, confounded as
to how I could ever deserve such amazing friends. I glanced down at my plate
and started to pick at the oysters. When I looked up again everyone else seemed
to be fine. Talking and eating like everything was normal.

“This can’t be normal.” I said under my
breath.

“Oh it totally is
,
we really do deal with danger all the time. Can you pass the lemons?” Annabella
said.

I looked up startled and passed the
bowl with the lemons over. “Umm did I say that out loud?”

“You practically whispered it but we’re
werewolves, babe. Hearing is hypersensitive and all that.” Demi said.

“I’ll have to remember that one.” I
whispered softly and looked up to see Demi and Annabella smirking at me.

“So” Jay said “Who wants to party
tonight? We have some overdue celebrating to do for one, Mr. Logan Winters…
well a party that doesn’t end in my almost demise.”

“I’m in.” I said immediately. Was it
smart to want to expose myself by going into a public setting? No. Did I want
to live my life in fear? Also, no. I was going to live it to the fullest and be
smart about it. Everyone else spoke their agreements but I don’t know if I
expected anything else with this group. “Do you guys mind if I set up some
wards around the house, they won’t hurt you or anything. They’ll just let me
know if there’s someone here that shouldn’t be and it’ll at least give us time
if they try to break
in.Wards
can be broken but not
easily.”

“That’s fine” Jay said but he looked weary.

I could tell none of them were used to
magic. Mena and Max turned to each other and then to me “Can we watch?” Mena
asked.

“Sure, it’s kind of boring though.”

“
It’s
fine,
we’ve been interested in this stuff for years. Did you know Magic is very similar
to science?”

“I always thought so. Then again in
many ways it’s its opposite.” I said.

Max spoke up. “They seem to be more
similar than opposite but regardless we don’t get a lot of opportunities to
observe. Witches are dangerous you know.”

“You don’t say?” I laughed. “Glad I can
be of service. Meet me in 20 minutes and I’ll do the wards. Then we can get
ready to go out.”

“Yes.” Annabella said excitedly. “Kira,
Mena, and Demi meet in my room when the wards are done. I’ve brought plenty of
outfits if you need. If not let’s still get ready together.” Annabella was so
thrilled it was comical but adorable.

“That’s perfect because I didn’t bring
anything to wear to go out in. Thanks A.B.”

She lifted one shoulder. “No problem.”

Full from the most amazing key lime
pie I'd ever eaten, Max, Mena, and I excused ourselves from the table and
brought our dishes to the kitchen. Inside was Rosie. She was fair skinned, with
plenty of wrinkles and white shining hair. She could not have been more than 5
feet tall. “You must be Kira” she said succinctly.

“Yes, it's nice to meet you. The
food was amazing. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a meal this much.”

She nodded once. “I'm glad you
liked it, hand me your plate dear and go enjoy yourself.”

I wanted to argue and help her
with the dishes but she didn't seem the type who'd want that. “So how long have
you known Jay?” I asked her.

She took Mena’s dish and looked up
at me. “I’ve known James Neil Dellarson his whole life.”

“Can you tell us something funny
about him?”

“Yeah, Mena said. We want all the
dirt.”

“Girls, not only will I tell you a
story, I will show you pictures.”

Mena and I exchanged mischievous
glances but then Max came up behind us and said “You better not. Jay will
somehow blame me for not stopping you Rosie.”

“That boy needs to lighten up. My
stories are wonderful as well as hilarious. He should be honored he’s the star
of them.”

“I agree” I said wholeheartedly.

“All right just one story
Rosie,
Kira has some business to attend to.” Max stated.