Capter Two: Surprise

Bree and I spent the rest of the afternoon on 4th Avenue, wandering through shops and thrift stores. I bought a cute black and white ruffled dress and tights, along with some handcrafted candles for Aunt Jeanette.

We laid out on the grassy campus of the university, eating deli sandwiches from Serentino’s. Bree took one of the candles from the bag, holding it to her nose.

“Mm, sweet pea,” she said. “Isn’t this a bit of a tip-off to your aunt that we weren’t exactly star students today?”

I laughed. “Knowing her, she probably already knows we’re not at school.”

She shook her head. “God, being around you and her is like being in a whole other world. I can’t even begin to understand how she does the things she does. It still amazes me, even after all these years.”

“It’s scary, too, sometimes,” I said, remembering the sensation of being unable to breathe on the bus.

“You kidding me? It’d be awesome to have"” she lowered her voice, “"magick.” She giggled. “I could use them to make those cute guys come over here,” she said, pointing to a group of college boys playing a casual game of volleyball to our right.

I humored her and conjured a gust of wind that sent the volleyball rolling to a stop next to her outstretched legs. She grinned at me knowingly and turned back to face the shirtless student who jogged over to us to retrieve it.

They invited us to play a game and she jumped up, tugging me along. I acquiesced and joined a team with a laid-back blonde and a longhaired brunette with dark, laughing eyes. I could tell Bree was enjoying herself with the attention of a spiky-haired brunette as he showed her how to serve the ball correctly.

The game was fun and light-hearted and despite being surrounded by very attractive boys, I found myself distant. They were likable but my interest was cursory. I kept thinking of the men on the bus and the flames and how the two were inexplicably connected. I remembered how my powers suddenly became out of my control. I wanted to know who, or what they were.

But most of all, as I watched the radiance in Bree’s face as she laughed and joked with the boys, I wanted to know why I couldn’t be like her and just be happy.


✯✯✯

When I got home later that afternoon, I could hear Aunt Jeanette in the kitchen. The pungent scent of rosemary filled the small entryway; she must be working on a brew.

“Aunt J!” I called, dropping my backpack at the foot of the stairs before turning into the kitchen.

“Hello, Shaye,” she greeted. “Just a moment, the tea is almost done.”

Jeanette was a slim, striking woman in her mid-thirties with cerulean eyes and long black hair that was usually bound in a braid. She favored casual clothes in neutral colors and often sported unique, handcrafted jewelry. Today, she wore a long yellow peasant skirt that grazed the floor with a white tank top and dangly earrings that looked to be made of hammered metal with beads. Her usual ankh pendant hung from a long silver chain.

I sat on a stool at the breakfast bar, watching her pour the tea into a mug for me. I took a sip and made a face at the strong bitterness. I spooned a bit of honey into it.

“It’s rosemary, to help with your insomnia,” she said, taking up her own mug. “Hopefully it will help.”

“Hopefully,” I said, though I didn’t have much faith that a bit of boiled leaves would help my nightmares. Bless her soul but I didn’t have the faith that Aunt Jeanette did in herbs and plants. “By the way, I picked up a few candles for you. I remember you ran out of that cinnamon scented one that you like so much.” I handed her the small plastic bag.

“Ah, stopped by 4th Avenue, did you?” she said, removing the ribbon and wrapping paper.

“I could’ve gone to Linens-N-Things,” I said innocently.

She tapped a stylized “A” that was molded into the bottom of the candle. “I’d recognize Adele’s handiwork anywhere. Was school especially unsatisfying today, for you to skip your classes?”

“It’s school, it’s always especially unsatisfying,” I replied. I fell silent for a while, trying to find a way to sum up what I’d been feeling in a way that could be easily understood. Of course, it was Aunt Jeanette I was talking to; she always knew what I was trying to say with an understanding that was quite extraordinary. Another reminder that she and I weren’t exactly average people.

“Tell me,” she said, “I know something has been troubling you.”

“I’m out of place here, Aunt J. I can do things that aren’t human and I know you know about them too.” I looked up at her apprehensively; this was the first we’d ever actually acknowledged my abilities.

She sighed. “Yes, I know what you can do. Or, at least, I’ve seen a developing…magick since you were young.” She hesitated to say the word aloud but continued on. “Ever since you were 13, I saw dust storms and tornados form when you were angry or scared. You broke glasses and light bulbs when you were frustrated and you were unusually perceptive to the things around you. I always knew you’d confront me with this one day.”

“It just seems like you’d be the one to have the answers,” I said ruefully. “You’re much more otherworldly than me.”

She made a motion with her hand as though waving my comment away. “I doubt that. I’m more of an earth-bound person; you, on the other hand, are a free spirit, an uncontainable force.” She looked at me sadly. “I don’t think I can give you the answers you’re looking for.”

“That’s okay, Aunt J. I don’t even know what kind of answers I’m looking for, except maybe to explain my dreams. They feel important somehow. But hell, maybe this is just a temporary disconnect from people. Teenage angst, you know?”

“Well, just the same, you should finish your tea,” she said. “I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.”

I downed the rest of the lukewarm liquid and put my cup in the dishwasher. Grabbing my bag, I headed upstairs to my room, where I flopped down on my twin bed with a sigh. I glanced at the t.v. and it zapped to life with a crackle of electricity. There was a news report about someone being crushed by a landslide but I couldn’t focus on the details.

I closed my eyes and thought of ice, like I had on the bus. I imagined a cold that chased away the hectic thoughts and restlessness. In the sea of my icy calm, I concentrated on a single question and flung it into the atmosphere, hoping that, by some chance, it might reach the person it belonged to, wherever he might be.

Who are you?


✯✯✯


I watched the man sitting across from me as he calmly cut into the steak room service had delivered a few minutes ago. I absentmindedly swirled the contents of my wineglass around in endless little circles, making it fizz. It held Mountain Dew instead of wine; I much preferred the carbonation to bitter wine. I pretended it was champagne, just to feel fancy.

Tonight, I was preoccupied by the distant psychic touch that had brushed my mind like a feather rippling the surface of water, a simple inquiry that made me burn with speculation.

“You heard it, didn’t you?” I asked before taking a sip.

“Yep.”

I waited. I should have known him better.

He continued eating, nonchalant. I frowned, setting the glass down pointedly. I hadn’t been sleeping well lately and wasn’t in the mood for games. He sensed my impatience and finally looked up from his dinner.

“So what do you think?” he said, giving me his full attention.

I sighed, trying to organize my hectic thoughts. They’d been beyond my control for the past several weeks and had left me agitated and drained.

“Well, I suppose the most obvious question here is whether or not we should respond to her,” I said. “And the obvious answer would be yes. She"“ I could clearly sense the person was feminine"“asked us who we are in such a way that it’s clear she isn’t aware of the existence of others like her.”

He nodded. “I agree, it would be dangerous to leave her unattended. However, that does pose a problem…”

“We don’t even know who she is,” I finished for him. I closed my eyes and tried to follow that tiny thread of thought back to its source. I felt as though I were a hairsbreadth away before…she was gone, like smoke in the wind. I sighed, frustrated at my failure.

“You were close,” Caleb said, cutting into his steak again. “You just haven’t realized how familiar the girl is. We came into contact with her earlier today.”

“You mean the one on the bus?” I asked. He nodded.

“Huh. I admit there was something a bit strange about her but it didn’t occur to me that she might be dangerous. Perhaps a little psychic, but not an Elemental,” I said.

“I thought the same, at first. But then there was a tremendous spike in her aura"which led me to the conclusion that there was nothing else she could be but an Elemental,” Caleb replied. “And if she is, she’s quite strong. We need to find her soon.”

I was rather disconcerted; I hadn’t felt anything like what Caleb had described. I must be shielding too tightly again. Damnit. Lately, I had been forced to increase the psychic barrier that kept my thoughts from invading others, and vice versa. I didn’t understand why and my frustration had been building inside like a cataclysmic force.

“Kye, don’t worry about it,” Caleb said, following my train of thought. “You’re stronger than you know. This will pass, as other difficulties have. Let’s just focus on one thing at a time.”

Caleb had always been the father figure, looking out for his “children”. I couldn’t come close to counting the number of times he’d pulled me back from the edge of becoming what I didn’t want to be. He knew about the darkness that burned inside me and he stayed by me anyway. Even if I lived for an eternity, I could never repay him for what he’s done for me.

He stood, drawing me out of my reverie. “I’m afraid we won’t have time to find our mystery girl; our plane leaves tomorrow and I have to report to the Council that the one we came looking for has, unfortunately, died.”

“The local authorities are blaming it on a freak landslide, aren’t they?” I asked. “An unstable rock formation or something that he tried to climb.”

“Yes. At least no one else was hurt, though it was tragic that he was lost.” He moved toward the bedroom, saying over his shoulder, “Anyway, try to get some rest; we’re leaving early. And see if you can’t try to find the general area that girl is. I have a feeling we’ll be back in Tucson soon.”

I nodded, staring out the window into the crimson streaks of the sunset, my thoughts on a girl with black-streaked blonde hair.


✯✯✯


A high-pitched, insistent buzz jerked me out of sleep and into a wakeful stupor. When did I fall asleep? I thought drowsily, before slapping a hand on my phone to cease its vibrating frenzy.

“Hullo?” I answered.

Shaye! You’re not going to believe this! Bree’s excited voice shrilled over the static of the phone. ”My mom bought me a ticket to New York for fall break!”

By this time my brain had woken up enough to process words. “Whoa, that’s awesome. When are you leaving?”

“The day after school ends for break, October 1st. I’m staying there for the entire three weeks. Aaand…guess what? She sounded like she was about to burst with excitement.

“What?”

“Turns out, my mom bought two tickets. So buckle up, b***h, you’re going to New York with me!” she all but screamed.

“Holy crap, are you serious?” I bolted up, wide-awake now as excitement blazed through me like wildfire. My alarm clock knocked over, landing with a small thud on the carpet but I barely noticed.

“Of course. We’re staying at my dad’s rowhouse in Manhattan but he’s also going to send us all around New York and to Queens. Whoo! Do you think Aunt J will let you go?”

“Of course! Hell, I’d go even if I had to sneak out in the middle of the night,” I joked. In reality, I wasn’t in the least bit concerned with Aunt Jeanette denying me this trip; in fact, she’d probably give me laundry list of things to get for her.

We talked for several minutes more, planning all of the never-ending possibilities of things to do in New York. When I disconnected, I bound down the stairs, skipping the last few and sliding into the kitchen on my socks. Aunt J looked up from where she was stirring a pot of soup.

“Someone had a pleasant nap,” she remarked with a smile. “It couldn’t possibly be because of a certain trip to New York that Miss Briana’s mother called me about, could it?”

“Well, now that you mention it, I think I remember Bree saying something like that,” I said, my attempt at nonchalance ruined by a wide grin. “So, I dunno, I was thinking I could get your opinion on the subject.”

“I’ll bet.” She stirred the soup some more before setting the wooden spoon down and turning to face me, lips pursed thoughtfully. Finally, she exhaled and said, “I told Bree’s mother that I was fine with your going to New York with her.”

I let out a whoop of triumph and a glass on the counter cracked, sending a chip skittering across the granite surface. I inhaled sharply, catching the chip before it fell.

“Sorry!”

She sighed a little. “It’s alright, Shaye, I know you didn’t mean to do that. But I do worry about you being in New York for three weeks for that reason; the last thing I want is for you to get hurt.”

“I know, Aunt J. But I’m almost 18 and this is an amazing opportunity. You know the one thing I’ve always wanted to do is travel, go somewhere other than Arizona. And I’ll have Bree and we’ll be with her dad.”

Aunt Jeannette snorted.

“Okay, well we’ll be with her dad half of the time. But c’mon, we can take care of ourselves,” I entreated, willing with every molecule of my being to persuade her.

“I know you can. I don’t mind if you go,” she answered, a bit robotically.

After the initial burst of happiness her words produced, I frowned a bit as I noticed her eyes were a bit glazed over. “Aunt Jeannette?”

She shook her head and seemed to recover. “Anyway, you’ve made your point; you’re old enough and I trust you. Just…” she paused, “Promise me you’ll use those exercises I taught you. I don’t want anything to get out of hand.” She motioned to the cracked glass to illustrate her point.

“I will,” I promise. “Thank you so much.” I hugged her tightly, inhaling her lavender perfume.

We ate dinner, discussing various aspects of the trip. I had $300 in savings that she would match, giving me a total of six hundred dollars for spending. I was feeling on top of the world.

“Try not to go too crazy,” she told me.

“Me? What 17 year old in her right mind would go crazy in New York with $600 worth of spending money?” I said innocently. She graced me with an eye roll.

“I’m serious. New York is…” She trailed off. “There are a lot of people in New York, of all different kinds. Stay safe.”

I nodded solemnly and she seemed satisfied enough to let the subject drop.

Truth was, I was nowhere near worried about being mugged"which is what I assumed Aunt J was afraid of"as I had always been capable of taking care of myself. The only thing I could think of was finally being able to see some other part of the world than this place. I loved Arizona but something in me longed for more.

This ticket to the other side of the country was like the gateway to freedom I’d always dreamed of.

Reviews

[Flick]

I read both chapters in less than a half hour :D
Its really good. And epic. XD And that's a good thing.

Cant wait for the next chapter!

[Tala]

to be honest i am LOVING it. Its some epic stuff. I like that even though im guessing this is gonna end up a romance you havent gone with the straight forward vampire or angel/demon thing. nice one :D