Black Magic (Howl #4) (10 page)

What do you mean you don’t know what decision you’re going to make?
Chris asked, standing up and glaring at her.
How could you even consider going back to Alaska if I’m not allowed to go with you?

Kyana looked down at the ground.
I miss my family. I miss my pack. I miss my Papa.

Chris gaped at her.
So, you’re just going to leave me here . . . for them?

I told you I haven’t actually made a decision yet, Chris. I need some time to think about this. Please don’t pressure me.

How could you even think about giving up me for your family?
Chris growled at her angrily.

Wouldn’t you give me up for your family if you had to?
Kyana questioned him.

No, I wouldn’t. I would give my family up for you because that’s what you do when you’re mated like we are, Kyana.

Guys, I’m sorry to interrupt this argument because I know it’s important to both of you,
Samara began,
but this meeting has nothing to do with Kyana and Orkos. It’s because we need to come up with a plan. The Vyka were in my room tonight while I was gone. Luckily, neither of my parents was home, but it was obviously that they were looking for something. I just don’t know what it was.

Maybe they just wanted to throw you off course for some reason
, Steve suggested.
They wanted to make it seem like they were looking for something, but they were really just looking for you.

I don’t think that’s what this was
, Samara replied, firmly.
I don’t know what Jason or anyone else from the Vyka wants, but they were definitely searching my room for something.

Do you think they could be looking for wolfsbane?
Colby questioned.

Samara shook her head.
I really don’t think they have any idea that wolfsbane can hide our scents. And even if they did, they’d probably try to buy it online or from a greenhouse or something. They wouldn’t try to steal it from me. They would want wolfsbane that was superior to ours.

Maybe they need the wolfsbane immediately, though
, Colby insisted.
Maybe they’re planning some sort of attack against us, and they don’t want us to pick up on their scent. It would make a lot of sense.

Colby, I’m pretty sure they weren’t looking for wolfsbane. I really don’t think the Vyka would even need wolfsbane because they’re powerful enough as it is because of black magic,
Samara replied, letting out a sigh. She put her head on her paws and tried to think.
I wish we could figure out what the Trusted Ones are.

That would be helpful
, Luke agreed.
We’re going to need to try using the Ouija board again soon to see if Matthias or any other spirits can help us out. Once we learn what the Trusted Ones are, though, I have an idea.

What?
Samara questioned.

I say we do the same thing to them that they’ve done to you,
Luke replied.
We have something we’re looking for . . . the talisman. We know Jason’s the one who would have it. He wouldn’t trust any of the other pack members to hold onto it.

Are you suggesting that we break into Jason’s house to steal it?
Colby asked.

Luke nodded.
Yes, let’s give him a taste of his own medicine.

I think it’s a great idea
, Samara replied with a smile.
It’s a plan.

*

Lying in her bed that night with Luke, Samara felt her body tense every time she heard a noise outside. First it was the sound of a tree branch being flung to the ground by the roaring wind. Then, it was the sound of deer walking around the backyard, their hooves noisily stomping against the dirt beneath them.

She stared around her room which they had tried to clean up to the best of their ability, considering the mess the Vyka had made. It made her feel sick to her stomach just thinking about the fact that one of them had been in her room earlier that evening. 

Luke wrapped his arm around her more tightly, and Samara smiled. “I’m so glad you stayed here with me tonight. I would have been freaking out if I was alone.”

“I wish I never had to leave,” Luke replied. She could feel his grin against her shoulder.

“Me, too,” she murmured. “One day, you won’t have to.”

“When?” Luke asked.

Samara rolled over and glanced up into his eyes. “What do you mean?”

“When do you want to move in together?”

Samara hesitated. “I . . . I don’t know. I never really thought about it, I guess. I always figured that I would go away to college and dorm somewhere before I ever moved in with somebody. But I never thought I would meet my soul mate in high school, either.”

Luke ran a hand through her hair. “Now that you know, do you still want to wait until after you go away to college?”

She bit her lip and shook her head. Blurting the first thing that came to mind, she said, “No, I don’t want us to have to live in different states . . . or towns. I don’t want you to go to college where there will be other girls who will want to throw themselves at you.”

Luke laughed. “It wouldn’t matter if there were girls throwing themselves at me. I belong to you, and only you.”

“I know that, but . . . I’ll still worry if we’re too far away from each other. It will make me jealous to think that other girls that you have class with or something will get to see you every day, and I won’t.”

“So, you
do
get jealous, huh?” Luke asked, his eyes dancing with amusement.

“Well, I don’t usually have a reason to get jealous, but I guess I would if I were put in that position,” Samara admitted.

Luke wrapped his arms around her. Pulling her close to him, he nuzzled her forehead. “You have no reason to be, not now or ever.”

She smiled, even though she knew it didn’t make a difference. If she were away at college, she would wonder if other girls were throwing themselves at Luke, and she was going to get jealous. It was out of her own control; not wanting any other girls—or werewolves, for that matter—near her mate just came along with being mated to someone.

“Maybe we could go to the same college, then,” Luke suggested. “If you want to, that is.”

Samara nodded. “Yeah, or maybe colleges that are really close to each other.” She hesitated. “And I also don’t need to dorm, either. We can get an apartment together once we’re old enough to do that.”

“Or we can live in your house,” Luke replied. “Once Colby and his mom move out, that is.”

“I don’t know. Sometimes, I think it would be nice to get away from here, you know? I mean, I don’t ever want to leave the pack, but who knows? Maybe they could all go with us eventually. It just feels like there are so many bad memories here . . . and so many things that I can never change. Like not being able to speak to my brother.” Or Declan, she thought to herself.

Luke leaned on his elbow and stared at her, deep in thought. “I’m jealous of him.”

“My brother?” Samara asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Seth wasn’t cool or popular by any means, especially not since he had turned into a wolf. The members of his pack were the only friends he seemed to have. His grades were probably bad enough to hold him back a year, he had a terrible Alpha, and, as far as she knew, he hadn’t mated with anyone yet. It didn’t seem like there was much for Luke to be jealous of.

“No, not of Seth . . . I’m jealous of Declan.” Luke lowered his eyes. “I heard your thoughts. Actually, it’s not the first time. I sometimes hear you think about him. I know you miss him.”

“I do,” Samara admitted, quietly. Feeling guilty that she had thought about Declan without blocking Luke out of her mind, she glanced over at Luke. “It doesn’t matter, though. He’s a part of my past. You’re my present and my future. For eternity.”

“I think that’s what makes me so jealous sometimes. He got to know you in the past . . . and pretty much the whole time you were growing up. I get to know you now . . . and I’m happy for that, but I sometimes wish I had been the one to live here nearby who got to know you my whole life. I feel like there are parts of you that he got to see that I have to miss out on.”

Not saying anything, Samara rested her head on his shoulder. She didn’t say anything back because, the truth was, there wasn’t anything she could say. Part of her wished that Luke was the one who she had known her whole life, that he could be her past, present, and future.

But she wasn’t sure if it was because she wanted him to know her as well as Declan had, or if it was because she hated the idea of facing the future without Declan.

Chapter 13

The next morning, Samara and Luke walked into Grandview High together, holding hands. After their discussion about moving in together and Declan, she’d slept really awful. She knew that Luke could sense that something was bothering her, but she didn’t bother to talk about it . . . and she was careful to keep her thoughts to herself this time. The last thing she needed was Luke to know that thinking about the fact that Declan was no longer in her life upset her.

“So, I was thinking that we could go on a real date tomorrow night,” Luke said, as he walked her to his locker. “Since our last date night didn’t really work out the way we wanted it to.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Samara smiled at him. At that moment, she spotted Emma and Colby walking down the hall together; Emma’s head was thrown back in laughter, and Colby was smirking over something that they were talking about.

“Hey, guys!” Luke called to them.

Emma stopped laughing and glanced over in their direction. She straightened her shirt and lowered her eyes. “Oh, I didn’t even see you there. Hi.”

“We’re having a date night on Saturday,” Samara told her. “Why don’t the two of you come along?”

But I just wanted it to be the two of us
, Luk
e protested through mind-speak.

She glanced over at him, apologetically.
I’m sorry. We can do that next time. I think Emma and Colby need a little bit of encouragement to get to know each other. Maybe it will be less weird for them if they go out with us.

L
uke shrugged his shoulders, but he didn’t say anything, through mind-speak or otherwise.

Since both Colby and Emma hadn’t said anything back, Samara went on. “We can make it a double date.”

Colby seemed to consider the idea, but Emma shook her head forcefully, her blonde hair moving with it. “No, we’re not going on a date. Does it look like we’re dating to you?” she snapped.

Samara rolled her eyes; she should have known this was the type of reaction she would get from her best friend. “Okay, I’m sorry,” she replied, throwing her hands up in the air, defeatedly. “I just wanted to be nice and ask in case you both didn’t have anything else to do tonight.” She was in the middle of her sentence when she saw a girl with long, red hair who she recognized as a
n underclassmen approach Colby.

“Hey, you’re Colby Jack, right?” the girl asked, sweetly.

Colby chewed on his bottom lip. “It’s Jackso
n, but yeah, that would be me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the girl replied, her cheeks flushing in embarrassment. “That’s what someone told me your name was. I’m Shannon.”

Colby shrugged. “It’s cool, don’t worry about it.”

“Anyway, I was wondering if you might want to come to my friend Kristen’s birthday party? She’s that girl over there,” Shannon whispered, pointing to a short-haired brunette girl, who was hovering in the corner, watching the conversation take place.

When Colby glanced over at Kristen and gave her a small wave, she smiled, but Samara could tell that her face had whitened in nervousness.

Colby glanced over his shoulder at Emma, who was watching him.

“I-I don’t know,” Colby replied, turning back to Shannon. “I might be busy on the day of her birthday party. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make it.”

“Well, here’s an invitation. If you can come, just let us know.” Lowering her voice, she added, “It seems like all the girls in our class are crushing on you lately, but it would be really nice if you could give Kristen a chance. She’s a really shy girl, and she has a huge crush on you.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Colby muttered under his breath. Once Shannon walked back over to Kristen, and they both walked away, he turned to Samara. “Did you hear that? Everyone thinks I’m cute now that I got my hair cut. I rock!”

Rolling her eyes, Samara laughed. “Just don’t let all of this attention go to your head.” Although, deep down, she thought that the attention was just what Colby needed for a confidence boost. And maybe once he acted more confident, Emma would give him a chance.

As Colby and Luke walked ahead of them and started talking about football, Samara glanced over her shoulder at Emma, who had fallen behind. Her best friend had a pained look in her eyes.

“Is everything okay?” Samara asked, stepping into place beside her.

Emma shrugged her shoulders. “I’m fine.” She glanced ahead to make sure Colby wasn’t looking before asking, “Do you think Colby’s going to go to that party?”

Samara shook her head. “No, it didn’t sound like it to me. Why do you ask?” She was hoping that Emma would finally admit that she had feelings for Colby, but she just shrugged her shoulders.

“Oh, you know. It would just make me feel really lame if Colby Jack had a better social life than me,” Emma replied offhandedly.

As they rounded the corner, Samara felt someone’s eyes pouring into the back of her head. She glanced around, and that’s when she saw him: Seth, across the hall, glaring at her, his amber eyes full of hatred.

*

Later that afternoon when the bell rang, Samara walked out of her math class, and headed to her locker. She pulled the biology test that she had earned an ‘A’ on out of her locker, and stuffed it inside her tote bag, and strolled over to Luke’s locker. He had already packed up his backpack with the books that he needed for the weekend and was just slamming the locker door shut.

“Are you ready to go?” Samara asked, smoothing out the black and red striped sweater she was wearing and checking her hair in a small mirror that she kept inside her tote bag. They were heading straight over to Luke’s house so she could finally meet his mother and stepfather, and she wanted to look nice.

Luke glanced over at her, flashing a wide grin at her. “I’m ready as long as you’re ready.” Even though he looked happy, she could tell from the shakiness in her voice that he was really nervous about her meeting his family. It made her wonder why.

“Okay, well, I’m good to go,” Samara replied. She led him down the hallway. Just as she was about to go out the doors that led to the student parking lot, a brunette girl who Samara knew was an upper classman stepped in between them.

“Hey, Luke!” the girl chirped. “I haven’t heard from you in a few months. How’s your mom doing?”

“She’s good,” Luke replied quietly, lowering his eyes to the ground.

The girl hesitated before asking, “Do you still have my phone number?”

“Uh, yeah, I-I think so,” Luke stammered, his eyes darting nervously over at Samara, but not fully meeting her gaze.

The girl pouted. “Oh, I thought you might have lost it. Maybe you should try using it sometime. In fact, I was thinking that maybe you would want to go to a John Mayer concert with me next month.”

“I’m busy,” Luke mumbled before opening the door and walking outside. Samara glanced over at the brunette, who stared back at him, with a dumbfounded look on her face. It was obvious that she hadn’t expected Luke to turn her offer down.

Once they were inside the car, Samara turned to Luke. “That girl has met your mom?”

Luke glanced over at her. “I didn’t take her to my house to meet my family, if that’s what you’re asking. We did bump into my mom once at the grocery store, though.”

Even though his explanation made sense, Samara still felt annoyed that the girl had met his mom, whereas she, his mate, still hadn’t yet. It made her wonder if maybe he didn’t
want
his mom to meet her because he was ashamed of her for some reason.

She turned to Luke. “I didn’t know you listen to John Mayer.”

Luke didn’t look at her; he only turned on the car’s ignition. “I used to.”

“Why don’t you anymore?”

Lowering his eyes, Luke shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t had much time to listen to music lately. It doesn’t matter anyway.”

“Yeah, it does,” Samara mumbled. “Who was that girl?”

“Just a girl I used to talk to. It’s not a big deal.” Luke glanced over at her, his green eyes penetrating through hers. “It was before I knew you were my mate, okay? You have nothing to worry about.”

“I’m not worried,” Samara muttered. She sighed, knowing how paranoid and jealous she probably sounded. “I’m sorry.”

Glancing out the window, she tried not to think about the other girl because she knew it would just make her jealous.
Instead, she turned her thoughts to seeing Seth earlier that day. It was the first time she had seen him—or any of the other Vyka members—since they were in Alaska; she hadn’t been expecting him to look at her with so much hatred.

How could he hate her, though?
That was the only question that seemed to run through her mind now when she thought about him. There was no doubt that she missed him, but was he channeling all of his anger and feelings of betrayal into hatred against her? The idea scared her, and she hated to think that her own brother could harbor these types of emotions towards her.

After they had driven for a few minutes in silence, Luke glanced over at her. “So, my mom baked for the first time in, like, five years. I hope you like chocolate chip cookies.”

Samara smiled. “I used to. My mom used to bake the most amazing chocolate chip cookies for Christmas every year. Well, she still does, but . . . Can we still eat them? I thought dogs aren’t supposed to have chocolate because it can kill them.”

Luke laughed. “If you’re a Basset Hound, maybe . . . but we’re werewolves, Samara. Nothing we eat is going to kill us . . . unless we’re eating something that’s made out of silver, maybe. That might kill us, but I don’t think anyone’s ever tested it . . . or lived to tell the story.”

“Oh, right.” She was always so busy wondering if something was going to kill her; it made it so easy for her to forget sometimes that the only things that could kill them were being shot with a silver bullet while they were in human form or being attacked the wrong way during a bad fight while they were in werewolf form. It made her feel even more foolish when she remembered that death couldn’t happen that easily . . . or not as easily as it could for mortals, at least.

Luke pulled onto a narrow dirt road, which was lined with trees, all of which were barren of their leaves. He pulled up to a small log cabin. There was a stream of smoke billowing out of the brick chimney, blending in with the gray, wispy sky above them.

“So, this is my house,” Luke told her, as he pulled into the stony driveway and turned off the ignition.

Samara stared at the house for a few moments. It wasn’t the type of house she had been expecting Luke to live in mostly because it felt so . . .
homey
. It felt like the type of house that should be filled with his family members baking Christmas cookies and decorating handmade ornaments right now.

But she got the feeling that wasn’t the type of environment Luke had been raised in. It was the only reason she could come up with for why he would have been so reluctant for her to meet his mother and stepfather. They probably liked to be left alone.

Although, Luke had mentioned that his mom had baked. Why would someone who wasn’t nice go through all the effort of baking cookies to meet her?

Taking a deep, nervous breath, Samara unbuckled her seatbelt.

Luke lowered his eyes. “Before we go in the house, there’s something I need to ask you. I know it’s a weird thing to ask, but . . .” He stopped mid-sentence, hesitating about whatever it was he wanted to ask her to do.

Samara raised her eyebrows at him. Lightly touching his shoulder, she asked, “What is it, Luke?”

“Don’t tell my parents you’re my mate.”