Shifting Shadows (Sparks Collide Trilogy) (23 page)

“All right, I’ll make it a quick
one. When James was six years old, his parents brought him here for the summer
to play with his grandparents. His grandfather, Robert Senior wanted to take
him out shopping. So he took him to the mall. They were gone for several hours and
we all thought it was strange but didn’t think too much of it. When Robert
Senior came back he told us all the story of how they’d been having a great
time when James had wanted Ice cream. Robert Senior thought it was a great idea
so he’d gotten in line and bought some.

When he looked down, James was
gone. He searched high and low for hours but couldn’t find him. Finally he
walked by a store and something caught his eye. He looked down at the
mannequins in the shop window and there was Jay wearing a purple scarf like all
of the other mannequins. He stood stock still like he was apart of the display.
After the initial relieve had worn off, James’s grandpa laughed and laughed
until James unfroze himself and laughed along with him.

He’d gone into the store to get
him but James didn’t want to leave. His grandfather had to buy him the purple
scarf just so he would agree to get out of there. When he came home he brought
in that little boy wrapped in his new favorite toy. We all thought it was crazy
but that was James, no matter what he did, he got away with murder because he
was just too lovable.”

I smiled. “Please tell me you have
a picture of him with the scarf.”

“I do.” She said easily and went
into a drawer in the kitchen. She pulled out the picture and even Max snickered
a little. There was a little boy with brown hair and purple-blue eyes and an
adorable smile. He had a bright purple, glittery scarf around his neck as he
made a robot, type of mannequin pose for the camera. Mena, Rose and I laughed
so hard, I almost couldn’t breathe.

Max held himself back but just
barely and said. “All right, we should get going.” I nodded and said to Rosie,
“Thanks again.”

Mena grabbed my arm, her eyes
sparkling as she said. “Let's go.”

We waited for Max to drop off his
plate and watched as Rosie squeezed his cheek. Mena and I snickered. He blushed
and followed us out the side door to the porch. “How far or close to the house
do we need to be?” Mena asked.

I took a look around and
considered. “With a house this large, I should do one for the outer perimeter.
Does this porch wrap all the way around?”

“No, just on three sides."
Max answered.

“Then I'll also do an inner
perimeter ward around the porch and around the back as well. That should do
it.”

“Sweet” Mena said.

Max turned to her. “Why do you
always insist on speaking like a plebeian, Mena?”

“Just because I have an extensive
vocabulary doesn't mean I have to use it all of the time, I prefer to speak how
I feel. We live in the 21st century, we should act like it. Besides, some
people find it pretentious if you speak formally all of the time.”

“Was that supposed to be a dig at
me?” Max asked, appalled.

“I don't know, do you think it
applies to you?”

I stopped them “Guys, I'm going down
to the beach. You can join but I'm going to need silence so I can concentrate.
This was a total lie. I used music all of the time and as apart of my training,
learned to cast any spell under pressure but they didn't know that.

“Of course, lead the way, Kira.
Well be on our most professional behavior.”

“Sweet” I said and Mena laughed as
Max put his head in his hands. We walked down to the beach and I took off my
shoes to enjoy the feel of the sand under my feet. I stopped for a moment to
enjoy the crashing sound of the waves on the shore. Then I turned back to the
house. “Warding can be done many ways but for me it’s just a charm, an
incantation that wards away unwanted guests. Anyone with harmful intentions
cannot cross it.”

“But the wards can be broken” Mena
stated. “Yes but only by the very powerful or the very lucky. The wards will
alert me if someone with malicious intentions is trying to cross them but not
if they disappear altogether. I’ll just have to check on them from time to
time. I would normally use my wand to help focus my powers to do the charm but
I can do just fine without it.”

“You have a wand? That’s so cool.
Where is it?”

“That’s literally one of those
things where if I tell you I have to kill you. A witch’s wand is a powerful
tool and could be disastrous if it fell into the wrong hands.”

“Oh wow, that’s crazy. Sorry I
have a billion questions.”

“It’s no problem I have about a
billion and one when it comes to werewolves. So when I get around to asking,
watch out.” I said.

“It’ll be our pleasure to teach
about our kind. Now, please feel free to ignore us and begin your wards, if you
answer all of our questions, we’ll be here all night.” Max said.

“All right” I said and closed my
eyes. I envisioned the whole of the house and began to recite in my mind my own
incantation. “If trouble may find thee, if harm they do lend, if wrongness,
injury, or evil they send, then hold them away, stand strong mighty fortress,
from the power of the light, I ask you this purpose.”

I opened my eyes saw what looked
like a clear elastic rubber band bubble out from my hands and shimmered into
the air before turning invisible. I could feel it magically but could no longer
see it unless I was to slip into my third eye’s sight. I walked around the
entire outer perimeter, reciting the words over and over, first in my head,
then aloud. Once that was done, I bowed to the invisible ward and thanked it.

From there I got as close I could
to the back of the house and I repeated the ward and walked up onto the porch
to close the inner perimeter off.  At last, I bowed to the inner perimeter
and thanked it as well.

“Wow” Mena said. “That was
incredible.”

“Thanks.” I said smiling. Magic
always lifted my spirits.

“How did you manage to learn all
these skills? It must have been difficult if you’ve been in hiding all of your
life.” Max stated.

“Yes and no. Three magic users are
better than one so my parents and I were able to put up enough wards to help us
go undetected. My parents taught me everything they could and whatever they didn’t
know, we learned together through their family’s books and memoirs. We had
blocking spell after blocking spell on our home and I’ve trained myself to pull
in loose spell remnants in 2.8 seconds on average. My record is 1.9 seconds,
though
If
a spell required you to be outside, we would
head up to the mountains and practice there.”

That’s where I learned to fly I
remembered, smiling to myself. “We had a few close calls here and there but
only with the humans. We never had any witch trouble and that’s always been our
main priority.”

“True, we understand that,” Mena
replied “The pack has got it down to a system about how to hide our true
natures from humans.”

“Yeah, it probably helps that
Jay’s father is the mayor so he can cover any scandal pretty easily, right?”

“Yeah but he has more power than
just as a mayor, he’s the Alpha of the entire southeastern part of the
United States
.”

I paused.
“Seriously?
That’s crazy cool. Jay never told me that. Then again he hadn’t even confirmed
he was an alpha himself.”

“Yes, Jay is an Alpha and so is
Demi, each pack has a male and female alpha. For our own generational pack,
they are the leaders but Jay’s father is our entire pack’s leader. More than
that, he’s also in charge of every state under the
Mason-Dixon Line
on the east coast.

He’s on business right now
actually, in
Tennessee
, I think. He has to settle
disputes if the packs can’t settle it amongst themselves, especially if they’re
having Alpha troubles and they need someone above them all to step in.”

“Wow, is Jay going to have that
same position someday?”

“He’s supposed to sometime after
he’s finished school. It’s what his dad’s been trying to train him for, that
and to get him to run for political office.”

“Wow, I didn’t know all that.” I
considered. “Jay doesn’t want to do that, does he?”

Max and Mena exchanged looks then
Mena spoke. “He doesn’t want to but at the same time I can believe he does want
to. He cares about us as a pack more than you can imagine, certainly more than
his father knows. He’s born to lead us, he just needs to want it for himself
and not because his father is making him. He’s not there yet but we believe in
him. He’s going to make a great leader one day.”

I noticed the pain in Max and
Mena’s eyes. There was so much more that she wasn’t saying. They loved Jay but
they didn’t know how to help him. It must’ve been really difficult for his pack
to watch him suffer since his mom’s death. I was glad for him that he had such
immense support from his pack.

I watched as the sky got darker and
the pinks and purples faded away. “It’s getting late. We should go inside and
get ready.” I said.

“Yes” Max agreed and Mena nodded.
“Prepare yourself now for Annabella dressing you and
glammin
’
you out. It’s kind of her thing. I like it now but at first, it can be
overwhelming.”

“Thanks for the warning.” I said,
curious as to how the rest of this strange day was going to go.

Mena and I walked into Annabella’s
room and were met with clothes to the face. I pulled the garment off of my head
so I could breathe and Annabella said “Try these on.”

I turned and found Mena trying to
get the dress off her own head and saw that it was stuck on an earring. I
untangled the fabric from the jewelry. “Thanks.”

“Sure.”

Annabella put her hands on her
hips. “Don’t just stand there, girls, we have lots to do. Try those on.”

Mena grabbed my arm and pulled me
further into the room to stand with Demi. I peered at the piles and piles of
amazing designer clothes strewn across the bed and forgot what I was doing.
Mena held onto my arm, shaking her head. “Just breathe, Kira.” But she
misunderstood completely.

Annabella sang out “She’s right.
It’s best if you just do everything I say.” I would do anything she said,
anything she asked. I may have just gone to couture fashion heaven.

I was frozen. “What was I doing
again?” Demi tugged at the maroon halter dress in my hands and I got excited
all over again. “Oh yeah” and I put it on.

Demi, Annabella and I looked at my
outfit in the bathroom mirror. “It’s cute but let’s keep looking.” I said and
the girls agreed. We saw Mena in the mirror heading over to us in a deep green,
mini dress with a sweetheart neckline that flowed at the bottom and we all
turned to her with huge grins. “Yes.” We said in unison.

I pointed “Yes, that’s so the one
you’re wearing tonight.”

“Phew. That was quick and
painless. I’m going to sit on the bed and comment on you guys until you pick
too.”

“Good idea” Annabella said
innocently “Then we can all move onto hair, make-up, shoes and accessories
together.”

Mena rolled her eyes “Damn. I
almost forgot about that.”

Annabella smiled and it seemed
almost evil. I loved it. “Ok girls based off of Mena’s stunner of an outfit,
we’re going with the mini dress theme, from there do whatever you want.

Demi went with a royal blue mini
dress that had only one shoulder attached to a long sleeve. It too was gorgeous
and it complemented Demi’s blonde hair and blue eyes perfectly. Annabella went
with a trendy silver sequined mini dress with cap sleeves. The only problem was
me. Annabella’s clothes fit me and they were cute but they were all too cute.
It was too difficult for me to decide.

Annabella looked me up and down
and said “Hold on. I’ve got it.” She brought out a black lace mini dress and I
loved it. For some reason Jay flashed through my mind and I knew immediately
that he would like this dress. I put it on and boom, it was perfect. If I
hadn’t known better I would’ve thought Annabella was the witch because she
definitely had a sixth sense. For fashion, that is. We did our hair and make-up
and picked out our shoes as we got dolled up for our night on the town.

I threw on a gray shirt, black slacks,
and my black shoes. I grabbed my black leather jacket and I was good to go. I
didn’t do the cologne or hair gel shit. A werewolf’s nose picks up more smells
than I wanted, so I always vetoed out anything that had too many scents.