04 Shadow Blood - Witch Fairy (13 page)

Tabitha nods and places her hands on me.  I knew that she can use her hands to calm people; I didn’t know that she can feel souls, as well.  I sit as still as possible as she touches me again.

It seems like forever before she opens her eyes.  Her lips break out into a wide smile as she pats my leg.  “Your soul is fully intact.  Isla is correct, you have picked up travelers.”

Great example of good and bad news.  “Glad to hear that, I guess.  Um, how do I get rid of them?”

“You are certain that it was these travelers that were responsible for her actions?” Kallen asks.  I push away from him and give him a dirty look.  Tabitha reaches across me and pinches his arm.  I guess she couldn’t reach to smack him in the back of the head.

“Ow,” he exclaims, rubbing his arm.

“You be nice to her.  Of course it wasn’t her misbehaving.”  Turning back to me, Tabitha pats my leg and says, “You will need to give me time to discover how to disentangle these pieces without affecting your soul.  I have a lot of research to do and I should get started.” 

As she stands up, a new thought strikes me.  “Tabitha, if I haven’t been in control of myself when I’ve slept, and only evil exists in the Shadow realm, do you think that I was the one who poisoned the tea and…and hit Zac?”  Rashnu did warn me that things were not as they seemed.

“No,” Kallen says.  The force of his answer surprises me.  “You may have behaved in ways you never would have on your own,” here he gives Kegan a withering look, “but you have not done anything evil.  I am sure of it.”  All my anger towards him from earlier has no choice but to wither and die under the weight of his faith in me.

“I believe you are correct, but until Tabitha is able to find a solution, I also believe we should not take any chances.  She will need to be watched at all times – especially when she is sleeping.”

“There are actually other people’s souls in side of me?”  I’m still having a hard time believing it. 

Isla nods grimly.  “Yes.”

I look up at Kallen.  “Did I really do that in the kitchen?”

His eyes dart to Kegan and then find mine again, an inferno burning brightly in them.  “Yes.”

“I am so sorry.  There aren’t words to express how sorry I am.”

“I know.”  He says it, I’m just not sure he means it.

“Kallen, honestly, I would not…”

He cuts me off by putting his hands on my cheek and giving me a light kiss.  “I know.”  I can tell he means it now.  He strokes my cheek with his thumb.  “It was difficult to see.  I simply need time to erase the scene from my mind; but I am no longer angry with you.”

I wipe at the tears still trickling from my eyes.  “I’d still be mad at you.”

He chuckles.  “More proof that I am the superior Fairy in this relationship.”  I’m so relieved that he’s not mad at me that I’m going to let that comment go.  As long as he doesn’t say it again.

“I do not believe that there is anything more to be done at the moment.  Perhaps you can take the first watch, Kallen.  I will relieve you in a few hours so that you may get some sleep, as well.

“I do not believe I will be able to sleep,” he says.  “If I am tired tomorrow, I will relinquish her to your care so that I may nap.”

Isla nods.  “Fair enough.  If you change your mind, let me know.”  She narrows her eyes at him.  “By knocking on my door this time.”

Kallen looks a bit sheepish now.  “Of course.”

After Isla leaves, Kallen stands up and offers me his hand.  I take it and stand up as well.  Out of the corner of my eye, I see Kegan trying to slip out of the room.  “Kegan,” I call out softly.

Reluctantly I think, he turns around.  “Yes?”

“I am so sorry for whatever I did.”

He nods and turns to go.  This time Kallen stops him.  “Kegan.”

He’s a lot more wary when he turns around this time.  “Cousin?”

Kallen sighs and runs a hand through his hair.  “I believe that you did not initiate the encounter I walked in on.”  A smile actually tries to form on his lips.  “I also understand that she is difficult to resist.”

Relief washes over Kegan’s face.  “I did try to resist her.”

Some of the anger creeps back into Kallen’s eyes.  “If it ever happens again, I expect you to be successful.”  With that, Kallen leads me out of the room and back upstairs.  I’m with him in that I don’t think sleep is going to be an option any time soon.

Chapter 14

Once we’re in my room, Kallen gently closes the door.  And locks it.  Turning back towards me, he asks, “Tired?”

I snort.  “Yeah, like I want to go back to sleep.  Lord knows what I’ll do next.”

Kallen runs a hand through his hair.  “Nothing, if I can help it.”

I sit down on the edge of the bed.  “Kallen, you really do believe that it wasn’t me doing those things, right?”

Walking to me, he gently pushes me back on the bed and kneels over me with his hands on either side of my head.  Looking down at me, his dazzling green eyes are intense.  “If I did not believe that, I would not be here.”  He runs a finger along my lips.  “I simply wish I had arrived sooner.”

I smile.  “Me, too.”

“I do feel sorry for my cousin.  To believe that you desired him,” he shakes his head.  “He may never be the same.”

I laugh.  “Yeah, right.”

“You truly do not understand the draw you have, do you?”

“Unlike you,” I tease.

He grins down at me.  “I see no reason for false modesty.”

“Shut up and kiss me.”

He doesn’t hesitate.  His lips capture mine and they’re demanding, possessive.  Moving us farther onto the bed without taking his lips from mine, he flattens against me so I can feel every inch of his perfectly toned body.  I wrap my arms and legs around him, wanting him closer, wanting more.  He moans and his hands feel like they’re devouring my skin as he explores every curve, every inch of my body.  I barely notice when my silk nightie disappears.  It wasn’t really covering much at this point, anyway.  My body feels like it’s on fire.  I want him so desperately I don’t know if I can stop this time.

“No,”
a voice inside my head says.  Um, that’s not my voice. 
“If I couldn’t play, then neither can you.”

The next thing I know, I’m pulling magic – a lot of it.  Kallen stops kissing me and his hands still.  “Xandra?”

“I think you’re going to want to move away from me,” I say as I struggle to suppress the magic the leaches on my soul are trying to wield.  Unfortunately, I think they have better control than I do over it.  Flames suddenly appear above us.  Not touching us, but definitely moving closer.

Kallen yanks me off the bed and pulls me halfway across the room.  I’d be embarrassed about being pretty much naked if I wasn’t in awe of the flames that have now formed into the shape of dancers and are kicking their legs up like they’re in a chorus line.  And now there’s music.  I’ve Been Working On the Railroad, to be exact.  With each beat, the fire people kick up alternating legs.  It’s actually beautiful and fun in a way.  Except for the fact that any minute the whole house could go up in flames.

“Xandra, what are you doing?” Kallen demands.

I look up at him helplessly.  “It’s not me.  It’s the little bits of extra soul I’m carrying around.”

He looks annoyed.  Sounds like it, too.  “Then take control and make them stop.”

Yeah, cause I didn’t think of that.  I close my eyes and try to concentrate harder.  My will has to be stronger than theirs.  Doesn’t it?

“Xandra, I smell smoke.  Is everything alright in here…” 

The sudden gasp as my mom chokes on her words reminds me that I’m only wearing panties at the moment, as I’m huddled next to Kallen.  And he’s only wearing boxers.  I don’t even think she’s noticed the dancing fire, yet.  That’s okay; she has her own fire dancing in her eyes.

It’s a good thing Kallen is quick with the magic.  Suddenly, I’m wearing something akin to a flannel muumuu that covers every inch of my skin.  I think he may have gone a little overboard on my outfit.  He has on comfortable looking jeans and a long sleeved black t-shirt.  Probably not the time to worry about fashion, though.

“Julienne, are they okay?” Dad asks as he floats through the door.  He stops and takes in the scene in the room.  From his perspective, it must look like a funhouse at a county fair.  Mom is stock still looking like a psychopath; she just needs a hatchet or something equally as sharp and dangerous in her hands.  I’m dressed like a clown.  Kallen looks like a deer caught in headlights, and the fire people are now looking like little Frankenstein’s and dancing to Monster Mash.  They’re pretty good, too.

“Xandra Illuminata Smith, you will put that fire out right now.”  Mom’s teeth don’t move at all when she says that, they’re still in a nasty little snarl that has moved her from psychopath to homicidal psychopath.

“Uh oh,”
the voice in my head says.  The Frankensteins disappear and now there’s a tiny coffin being carried by little pallbearers moving solemnly to the death march. 

“Very funny,”
I say in my head. 
“Cut it out.”

“
You were a lot more fun when you didn’t know we were here,”
the voice pouts.

“Too bad.  The fire goes out now, or I will burn you off my soul like I did the poison.  I don’t care how much it hurts me in the process.”

“Fine,”
the voice pouts and instantly, the fire disappears.

“Kallen, Jim, leave the room.”  The words come out like concrete bricks being piled up to drop on my head when there’s enough of them.  I wish I could disappear like the fire did.

“I think I should sta…” was all Kallen got out before Mom’s barely audible spell creates a bolt of lightning right behind him, causing him to whirl around and step back. 

“Get out,” Mom grinds out.  He doesn’t hesitate this time.

“Mom,” I say but she holds up a hand.  I stop talking.

“Jim, please,” she says.  I don’t think Dad wants to go.  Maybe he’s afraid for my life.  I know I am.  With obvious reluctance, he does finally leave the room.  Alone, all too soon.  I wish he would have dragged his ghost feet a little bit longer.

“Xandra, sit down,” Mom says pointing at the bed.  I sit.  She starts floating back and forth in front of me, ghost pacing.  “Xandra, I know that your father and I have given you and Kallen a lot of freedom.  We felt that with the near constant danger you’ve been in, it would be best to have him close to you.  Apparently, we underestimated your control around each other.”

I really want to argue.  I do.  But, what can I say?  Really, Mom, I was just giving Kallen an anatomy lesson.  He’s studying to be a doctor.  Yeah, that would go over well.  How about the dancing fire burned our clothes off.  That one might actually be plausible.

“Xandra, you are seventeen years old.  Technically, you’re not even an adult.”

I can’t help but snort and grumble.  “How many times do I have to battle people who want to kill me, and everyone around me, before I qualify for adult status?”

“Xandra, watch your tone when you speak to me,” she says sharply.

Guilt washes over me as I look up at her.  “Sorry.”

“You and Kallen have already made a commitment that I think you were far too young to make.  I am still angry that you did not feel the need to discuss this with your father and me.  Perhaps you knew that we would be against it.  But, what’s done is done.”

“Mom, we weren’t going to have sex.”  I’m going to have to come up with a name for the new shade of red my entire body is turning.  It’s like all my capillaries burst and the blood is having a party amongst my skin cells.

The look on her face can only be described as patronizing.  “I was seventeen once, myself, Xandra.  Do not pretend that either of us is stupid.  Whether it would have happened tonight or not is irrelevant.  What is relevant is that if your behavior has progressed this far, it will not be long before you do have sex.”

No, no, no.  I do not want to have the sex talk.  There should be a law that says if your mother is technically dead, you no longer have to talk about sex with her.  How can I get out of this?  Hey, soul barnacles, you can bring the dancing fire back if you want.  Please?  An amused tittering is all I get in response.

“Have you two even discussed birth control?”

Maybe I can call this color staining my skin red dragon fire or cherry lava, something catchy like that.  I can’t meet her eyes when I say, “No.”

She sighs.  “I thought not.”  Shaking her head, she stops her ghost pacing and floats in front of me.  “Xandra, I know you think you’re in love.”

My head shoots up and this time, I meet her eyes.  “I
am
in love.”

She rolls her eyes.  “Fine, you are in love. But, are you ready to be married?  Are you ready to have a baby?  It seems like you have enough on your plate right now without having to worry about those things.  You are only seventeen.  You’re too young to make forever type decisions.  You are too young to be engaging in adult behavior.  From now on, Kallen will be sleeping in his own room, and the two of you will be spending a lot less time alone together until I can trust you to be more responsible.  Consider yourself grounded.”

My embarrassment has been pushed aside by the gargantuan bubble of anger building inside of me.  Really?  After all I’ve been through lately, she’s going to treat me like I’m five and try to ground me?  Before she can say another word, I start talking.  “Yes, I’m seventeen.  I get that.  But you say it like I’m a child.  I’m not a child, Mom.  Even if I still seemed like it on my birthday, I’ve had to grow up awfully quickly since then.  I’ve had to make life and death decisions that people four times my age have never had to make.  I’ve had to protect my family, my friends, and myself from being killed.  I went to
HELL
for god’s sake, Mom, and I lived to tell about it.  So, please, don’t stand there and talk to me like I’m still a five year old that you’re worried is going to get burned by the stove or lost in the snow.”  I stand up and start pacing in front of her now.  I’m thinking that she’s too stunned to speak at the moment, because I never talk back to her like this, and I’m going to take advantage of it.

“No, Kallen and I haven’t talked about birth control, and yes, we should.  And we will.  Do I want to be married right now?  No, I don’t.  But that doesn’t mean that you have the right to belittle my feelings for Kallen.  After everything I’ve seen and done since I found out about magic, I’m pretty sure that I have a good idea now of what’s love and what isn’t.”  I stop directly in front of her and stand to my full height so we’re eye to eye.  My green eyes to her blue ones. 

“Mom, this is going to sound really harsh, and I’m sorry about that, but I’m afraid you lost the right to tell me what I can and cannot do the day I walked unprepared into this new, dangerous life of mine.  It’s me that has to make the split second decisions that will keep me alive or not, and it’s me that has to have the strength and maturity to stand up and face whatever problem that’s thrown at me next – whether it’s another family member that wants to kill me, or pieces of other peoples’ souls that attached themselves to mine when I was in hell, or just a psychopath who wants to take on the prophesized Witch Fairy just for the hell of it.  If I have to handle those situations, then I’m definitely old enough to decide whether or not I want to have sex.  Right now, the answer is no, I don’t.  But, that could change tomorrow, or next week, or maybe not for years.  I don’t know.  What I do know is that it makes me happy to be with Kallen, and there aren’t a lot of things that make me happy right now, so I’m going to spend as much time with him as possible.”