Zora's Dawn (Defender Book 1) (20 page)

They all
smiled at her tagged on comment. Zora leaned back in her chair and studied the
small group. From the outside they simply looked like a group of women enjoying
a leisurely afternoon. There was nothing at all to indicate how different every
person in the group was from all the other people around them. This led Zora to
consider the possibilities. Her whole life until now had been a lie, she had
been surrounded by things that were not as they seemed and had been completely
unaware of it. How was that possible? Surely some part of her must have noticed
shifters and fairies and vampires. She fingered her pendant absently, wondering
how many times it had tried to warn her of the supernaturals around her and how
many times she had not noticed.

She looked
at the people seated at the other tables and those walking past. How many of
them were simply human and how many had other abilities? If she tried, would
she be able to tell human from supernatural? Zora decided to experiment, and
tried to use her extra sight to see the auras of the people around them. It
seemed easier this time, an indication that as with any other ability practice
made perfect.

As she
watched, auras appeared around the people closest to them. Zora stared at them,
entranced by the rainbow hues that had appeared on an otherwise grey Melbourne
day. She saw all the colours of the rainbow, except for purple or blue. Did
that mean there were no witches? Clare and Samantha were surrounded by the
colours in their mist, aqua for Clare and green for Samantha and for both gold
and silver. Zora remembered Axel had said auras meant different things for
fairies. The other people at the tables closest to them were cloaked in shades
of orange, red, green, brown, yellow and even black and a little bit of white.
Zora sighed in frustration – she didn’t know what any of those colours meant,
she had to find the time to do some research on auras. Axel had told her to do
it, but there simply hadn’t been time for it.

As she
gazed around the street her attention was caught by an odd looking aura. It was
the least attractive one she had seen, with a blend of dark and muddy colours in
shades of red and green and black, unrelieved by anything brighter. Zora took
her attention off the aura and looked at the person it belonged to, a perfectly
ordinary looking man dressed in a business suit and carrying a slender
briefcase. He had dark hair and eyes and was talking on his phone, paying no
attention to the people around him. She watched as he strode towards them,
switching her attention from his aura to him. The contrast between the muddy
colours of his aura and he himself was marked and held her attention.

“Zora? Are
you ok?” As she spoke Sunny reached out to touch her hand where it rested on
the table.

Zora
pulled her attention from the man and focused on her friend, noticing the
others were looking concerned as well. “Sorry guys, I was just distracted looking
at all these people and wondering if any of them are different like us.”

Shax
smiled in understanding. “You’ve just learned about us all, of course. I keep
forgetting what a big adjustment you are going through. Once you have fully
adjusted to your new powers you will find it quite easy to recognise a
supernatural when you see one.”

Zora
touched her pendant and returned her gaze to the man who was almost level with
their table, still talking on his phone. Looking back at Shax she asked
curiously, “How will I be able to tell? I know my pendant warns me, but it is
always cold these days with all of you around me. Although it’s warmer than it
usually is, maybe like Axel said it will recognise allies and no longer get so
cold around you guys.”

Suddenly
alert Samantha asked, “It’s warmer? How much warmer?” She sat straighter in her
chair and Zora could see that she was scanning their surroundings, as was
Clare.

Zora
fingered her pendant. “It’s really warm now, almost like at the murder site.”
Sudden comprehension had her eyes widening and her eyes were immediately drawn
to the man with the odd aura who had passed them and was striding off swiftly.
Samantha and Clare followed the direction of her stare, focusing on the man in
the suit.

“Zora, did
you feel anything about this man?” As she spoke Samantha was gathering up her things.

“I was
practicing looking at auras, and his was really unattractive, all dirty muddy
reds and greens and some black.”

Shax
stared at her. “You can see auras? But I’m guessing you don’t know what the
colours mean yet, right?”

Zora
shrugged. “I can, and no I don’t know what they mean and I haven’t had time to
do any research.”

Shax
nodded towards Clare and Samantha. “You guys go, we will be right behind you.”

Samantha
was already on her feet but Clare hesitated. “Someone should stay with Zora,
one of us should stay.”

Shax shook
her head decisively. “No, you and Samantha should stay together, I can take
care of these two and we will be right behind you anyway.”

Sunny was
looking completely bewildered by the entire exchange. “Wait, where are you
going and what’s going on?”

Shax
turned to Sunny. “Short explanation, a rogue werewolf just walked right past us
and Samantha and Clare are going to follow it.”

Sunny
turned pale, eyes suddenly huge in her face. “We are going to join them in
following a rogue werewolf?”

Samantha
was looking agitated and Shax said firmly. “Go, both of you. We will pay the
bill and follow you at a safe distance.”

Without
any further urging the two fairy guard were off, walking quickly and
disappearing down a side street. Zora wondered what they were doing going that
way when the man had walked past that street, but now wasn’t the time to ask.
Sunny was still looking shell shocked and she herself was feeling the same. A
rogue werewolf had just walked right past her and she had not even known. She
was a complete failure as a defender.

Shax
pulled her purse from her bag and took out enough notes to cover the bill.
“Come on you two, we will stay close to the fairies in case we need to escape
quickly.”

Sunny was
still sitting in her seat, obviously trying to process the sudden turn the
afternoon had taken. “I still don’t understand, you’re saying a werewolf walked
past us and none of us realised? What about the fairies, why didn’t they pick
up on it?”

Shax
frowned. “I don’t know, they should have. Fairies can spot all supernaturals
way before we can. Zora what did your pendant do?”

Zora
shrugged uncertainly. “It was warm, not really hot though. It should have been
shouldn’t it with a rogue so close?”

“It should
have been hot yes. And even though you are new you should have felt something,
and the fairies should have known. It’s almost like it was wearing a cloaking
spell but that’s impossible.” Shax shook her head impatiently. “We need
answers, and soon. Ok ladies, let’s go. Don’t worry Sunny, we are not going
anywhere near the werewolf, just staying within range of the fairies.”

Sunny
nodded uncertainly and stood up, along with Zora who was still puzzled at the
fairies actions. “Shax, why did the fairies go down that side street? The
werewolf didn’t go that way.”

Shax
smiled slightly. “If two people suddenly disappeared right in front of you,
you’d have some questions I think.”

Comprehension
dawned. “You mean fairies can disappear?”

“Exactly.”

They all
started walking in the direction the werewolf had gone, Sunny very obviously
reluctant to go. “How will we know where they went anyway?” she asked.

“Something
you will learn soon, witches can communicate very easily with fairies.” Shax
answered in a preoccupied tone which led Zora to think she was communicating at
that moment.

She was
proved correct in the next few minutes when Shax passed on a request from the
fairies to watch out for anything strange as they walked. Walking along Zora
tried to make sense of what had just happened. A rogue werewolf had walked past
them, seemingly not knowing what they were any more than they had recognised
it. That apparently wasn’t normal. It wasn’t the one from her visions, she was
certain of that and besides it was a male and the one from her visions was
female. But it was a rogue, which meant that the theory about a group of them
was looking more likely. Were they a group of dark magic wielding rogues? Even
to her, new as she was, that sounded very bad. And now they were following
invisible fairies which were following a rogue werewolf of unknown power. That
sounded like a really bad idea, insanely bad. No wonder Sunny was walking along
looking like the big bad wolf might jump on her at any second. He actually
might.

She
scanned both sides of the street as they walked but saw nothing out of the
ordinary. It was hard to believe what they were doing or that any of it was
real when they were walking down a perfectly ordinary street surrounded by
perfectly ordinary people. This other world she now lived in seemed more like a
dream than reality.

Zora had
no idea where they were going, or what they were going to do once they got
there. The werewolf was wearing a business suit so it seemed likely he was
going back to work or was running a work related errand. A sudden vision of
Michael J Fox as he looked in
Teen Wolf
popped into her head and made
her smile. Sunny raised an eyebrow at her and Zora gave a quick explanation
which made Sunny smile as well.

Shax
however kept up the pace, Zora assumed she was anxious they catch up to the
fairies which did seem like a good idea on this fools errand. They were going
so fast they must surely be getting closer, although the werewolf had been
striding along at a pretty fast pace. Realising her thoughts were distracting
her from her surroundings Zora focused again on looking for anything unusual.
They kept on walking for several more minutes, turning here and there until
Zora knew she was lost. She hoped Shax had a good sense of direction.

Finally
Shax turned into a narrow alley that appeared to be nothing but the back
entrances to local businesses. There was nobody there that she could see, and
nothing for anyone to hide behind except the large rectangular bins about
halfway down the alley. Shax put up a hand for quiet and concentrated on
something only she could hear. Zora and Sunny leaned against the wall and
waited.

After a
few more minutes Shax smiled at them. “I know this must all seem very strange
to you both, you’ve never had to do anything like it before I’m guessing. The
fairies have followed the werewolf to his place of work and they will get a
fairy watch put on him so we know where he goes and what he does. It seems
reasonable to assume he will lead us to the group, if there is one. So we can
go back to the house now, as soon as the fairies come to us here. Best that
they become visible without human onlookers.”

Sunny
sagged in visible relief, and then straightened. “You know I’m relieved we
didn’t have to do anything, but still it seems like such an anticlimax. I
thought there’d be some sort of confrontation, or a fight, or something. This
just seems a bit tame.”

Shax
raised an eyebrow at her. “You wanted to go fight the wolf? We can do that if
you want. I don’t think Marcus or Powers would be too thrilled about it
though.”

Sunny
sighed. “No, I don’t want to fight him. I just thought we’d learn something,
that’s all.”

“We have
learned something. We’ve learned that there are at least two rogue werewolves,
and we’ve learned that this one is still able to hold down a job. He’s a lawyer
by the way. Sometimes the rogues lose touch with the human world completely. We’ve
also learned that rogues may be able to disguise themselves from fairy
detection. That’s a lot to learn from an afternoon shopping.”

Sunny
looked unconvinced. “I guess so. I suppose I thought it would be more
physical.”

Zora
remembered her supposed ability to torch the werewolves and shuddered. She
didn’t know if she would be able to do it if the opportunity ever presented
itself. Once again she doubted her ability to fulfil her role in this mission –
if mission was the right word for it.

Hearing
movement from the street end of the alley she turned, expecting to see Samantha
and Clare. The sudden flare of heat from her pendant warned her seconds before
the appearance of a youth dressed in scruffy jeans and a t-shirt. This was very
obviously not the man she had seen before, yet her pendant was hot and that
feeling she had been ignoring all day was now screaming DANGER loud and clear.

Shax swung
around and put herself in front of both Zora and Sunny in one swift movement
while also putting herself in the path of the youth. He came to a halt, a
puzzled expression on his face. Zora stared at him, he looked harmless, a kid
around 18 or maybe a bit older. But her pendant and that feeling deep inside
told her a different story. In the next few seconds she used her other senses,
seeing his aura come to life coloured dark muddy green with flashes of red. It
was a sullen, angry colour and it perfectly matched the sullen angry expression
on his face as he took in Shax blocking his path.

“Get out
of my way witch,” he snarled as he started forward again. Shax held her ground,
right hand raised. “Who are you? Why are you here?”