Shifter Magick (12 page)

Kera thought about how to answer. “We weren’t really that close until after the
attack
.” She answered truthfully. “Originally he thought he recognized me but I guess we just hit it off after he came to check on me.”

“You be careful.” He said seriously. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but a relationship is hard work. If you feel yourself slipping back into depression I need you to tell me.
I don’t want this to trigger another…”

“Dad.” Kera cut him off. “I know I changed after what happened to mom. I feel better around him though. I feel normal.”

“Have you opened the present?”

Kera eyed the space between her feet and the bed where she hid the present. “Not yet.” she told him. “I’m working on it.”

“
Okay
.” Her father knew she still had limitations. Kera didn’t try to deny it either. It was hard to remember her mother and not think of her death. It was harder for Kera when she felt that somehow her mother’s death had something to do with the beast inside of her.

Did her mother know about it? Was she planning on telling her?

Was the reason her mother tried to get her to stay home because she knew what was going to happen?

She said goodbye to her father and dug out Maddox’s IPod. She turned it on and set the earphones on the table next to her bed. For her, they worked like speakers. She wondered why she didn’t think of it sooner.

Kera listened as she studied. There were two songs she really liked. They were both guitar instrumentals and now that Kera had heard Maddox play, she knew the artist. She wanted to press him about the meaning of the songs. They were so beautiful yet carried an edge of pain.

A knock at the door drew her attention.

Kera went over to the door and opened it.

“I guess you were determined to make me look bad from the beginning.” Tori said, her voice acid. “Andrew is very disappointed you would treat him so badly then turn around and go out with Maddox.”

Kera shook her head in disbelief. Is this what Rebecca was talking about when she said Tori treated her badly? “I don’t think it is
any of your business who I hang
out with. Or Andrew’s for that matter.”

“So you specialize in endangering people?” She shot back.

That hurt. “I never meant for anything like that to happen.”

Tori flipped her hair over her shoulder and ran a disgusted gaze over what Kera was wearing.
Her gaze flickered to the crutches abandoned by Kera’s bed, then to the ankle that was supposed to be injured.
“Nick and Andrew can’t seem to quit talking about you and now you have Maddox carting you around like an invalid and dr
iving you around in his busted M
ustang. I don’t know what kind of game you are playing here but I’m going to find out.”

Kera hesitated when she saw a glint of determination in Tori’s eyes.
She made sure to remove all weight from her ankle, she hadn’t walked on it in front of Tori yet, she could still pretend to be injured.
“
No game.” She said. “I just like Maddox better than Andrew.”

Tori smirked. “Well then this will come as a surprise,” she leaned over to Kera and whispered, “Andrew said Maddox is lying to you. Andrew wants to make sure you have all of the facts. He’s ready to give them to you if you’ll meet up with him.”

“I would rather be lied to.” Kera said but the words didn’t ring true. She lied to everyone but never dealt with someone lying to her. She found that it created a crater of pain in her chest that could only be filled with the truth.

One thing she did know, she didn’t want it from Andrew. She wanted it from Maddox.

Tori stood in the doorway smirking. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her red hair was like a beacon to her face. Kera
stepped back and shut the door in Tori’s face. The force pushed her back into the hall
.

“Hey!”
Tori yelled on the other side.

Kera
waited until she left before she grabbed her key,
locked the door and took the stairs down two at a time. It was already dark outside. She pushed open the doors and took a deep breath of the fresh night air. Lies. That’s what she was facing now. Kera pocked her key and ran.

She ran until she hit the forest on the outside skirt of campus. Her breath sawed in and out of her mouth. She looked around and noticed the stars were hidden. The moon was up there but the clouds were quickly hiding it from view too.

She swallowed the lump in her throat. How had it come to this? Today, the day that Maddox had made her feel like she was special. They talked for hours. She felt normal when she told her dad about
Maddox.

What is he lying about?

Kera made a sound of frustration and kicked at the brush at her feet. She pushed past a few small branches and heard them whip the air when she let them go. As she walked she tried to see what she was missing.

She wanted to believe that she could have a relationship. She wanted to believe that these intense feelings she had for Maddox could be reciprocated. Was it because she wanted it so badly that she was blind to the truth?

It was time to start thinking about what was going on. Andrew was part of Maddox’s family. Nick was part of their family. Maddox said that they had all seen things out of the ordinary.

Was it possible
they knew about her somehow? She didn’t see how. She wasn’t from here. She did shift once while she was here but the only thing that had been conscious at the time was a wolf.

She would have known if someone else had been there.

Kera needed to talk to Maddox. She needed to be brave and find out exactly what he could handle and what he couldn’t. She was going start protecting herself and she needed to start with her obsession with Maddox.

With her heart pounding with anxiety, Kera shifted.
Her beast stretched out, happy to be free.
She didn’t know for sure where Maddox went after he dropped her off but she decided to try his shop first. Hopefully he would be there.
If she showed up there without her car she would be forced to explain and that would keep her from changing her mind.

She was going to tell him.

The garage door was open. The night had fallen even darker that it should be at this hour. Heavy rain clouds blocked the moon and stars. Kera crouched low on the ground and watched. Her lithe muscles twitched when the rain started. Every drop tickled her fur.

She could smell him inside. Her human mind was nervous but something about her instincts bothered her. She felt threatened. Kera moved back into the forest and searched the perimeter to make sure no large animals were looming about. If the wolf that attacked her returned, she would be prepared to take it out.

When the feeling wouldn’t be consoled, Kera went back to check on Maddox. His door was open and anything from the forest could have wondered into his shop while he was busy working on his car. When she reached her hiding spot, she took a breath and realized his scent had faded.

Kera crawled forward to get a better look. She didn’t want to frighten him if he was sitting in his car with the doors shut. She didn’t see any lights on in the car but the shop lights were still on.

From beside her an animal whimpered.

Kera jumped out of her crouch. She hissed and felt the hair along her spine rise in warning. The animal was huge. It had white fur and blue eyes. It looked like one of the wolves she’d seen on TV pulling dog sleds in the mountain but large. The beauty of the wolf didn’t distract from the danger it embodied. Her initial reaction was to run but she couldn’t. Not if Maddox was anywhere around, unprotected.

The animal whined and her beast hissed another warning.

In the back of her mind, Kera wondered if it was hurt. Did animals ask for help? She was a feline, weren’t they natural born enemies of the wolf? Shouldn’t she be defending herself or attacking?

Out of the corner of her eye she saw his white tail flipping back and forth. She watched the movement and wondered why housecats were so hypnotized by the motion. Was it a hunter’s instinct to catch all moving objects?

When the wolf moved toward the shop, Kera panicked. She ran in front of the an
imal and swiped out with her paw
and clawed his face. The wolf yelped and danced back. Kera planted herself in between the wolf and Maddox’s shop.

Sheer determination overrode her fear of this creature before her. If it reacted in violence she didn’t think she could really beat it in a fight. The rain started to fall more heavily and it washed away the scents even more.

Instead of lashing out, the wolf sat down and tilted his head in confusion.

Kera looked back at the open door and was glad Maddox hadn’t come out to see what the ruckus was about. Was he even still in there? Kera didn’t want to get herself into trouble if he wasn’t even in there. He hissed a warning to the wolf and prowled to the open door.

Inside was bright compared to the outside. She couldn’t see Maddox.

Behind her the wolf moved. Kera turned around growling but her lungs seized at what she saw. Maddox was knelt down on one knee, his head was facing the cement and his skin glistened with moisture from the rain. He shook out his hair and ran a hand though the thick mass. Drops of water fell to his shoulders and trailed down his chest.

Kera turned away as her human mind reeled from shock.

Maddox was a shifter.

Kera tried not to look at Maddox’s naked body when he stood.

“What are you looking for?” Maddox asked her. He walked cautiously toward the shop obviously trying to show her he was not going to harm her.

Kera noticed the claw marks across his cheek bolted back into the forest.

The rain started pouring more heavily. She paced back and forth on the muddy ground as she thought. Was this a good thing? Was Maddox and his whole family shifters? Were there any feline shifters here? More importantly
,
was the wolf who attacked
her
a
shifter like Maddox?
She remembered Maddox’s worry over what the wolf looked like and she figured she was spot on.

Who was it then? Maddox didn’t seem to recognize her so whoever it was hadn’t told him.

Maybe it was Andrew.

She needed to find out the truth. Kera shifted back, fully clothed and wondered why Maddox had been naked after his shift. Was he able to shift with clothes on or did he just like to go without? The mud coated her shoes and her heart pounded in her chest.
She was nervous but she couldn’t turn back now. Someone knew about her and she was determined to know who.

As she walked, Kera thought about the different times she should have been clued into the fact that Maddox was different. He told her twice that her heart rate had gotten out of control. That meant he had superior hearing like she did. He tapped his pen to calm his heart rate. Was he trying to avoid shifting?

Kera came to the end of th
e forest and looked into the sho
p. Maddox had a towel around his shoulders and a pair of jeans hanging low on his hips. His chest was bare and his hair was damp.
Kera felt a surge of female appreciation for the strength in his body. She hadn’t worried about boys since her mother’s accident and now, with Maddox standing in front of her, she found things awakening inside of her that had been hidden away.

The rain kept her scent from reaching him, so Kera quietly made her way to the garage. She wanted him to question how she got there at the very last minute.

Kera took a breath and spoke calmly. “Can I come in?”

Maddox turned around in surprise. “What are you doing here?” he asked. He pulled the towel from around his shoulders and rushed to her. He put it around her and wrapped his arms around her. “Is everything
okay
?”

Kera looked at his cheek and noticed the claw marks where thin white lines now. He healed even faster than she did. When his hand rubbed her arm, the electric feeling she felt when he touched her reminded her of her ankle. Kera put her arms around his neck and kissed his lips.
She threaded her fingers in his damp hair and arched her body against his.

He felt so good.

She gasped
when he embraced her. His bare skin touched hers and the electric feeling
intensified
as their tongues battled
. His lips were potent. Her nerves calmed down and everything inside of her knew she was safe with him. She felt her heart swell with the blossoming of love for him. She didn’t know if it was a natural feeling or a supernatural feeling but it felt real. It felt right.

Kera noticed his cheek was completely healed after their kiss.
“You heal fast too.” She murmured then touched his cheek.

Maddox froze. She could tell he had forgotten.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Maddox pulled the towel around her
so it wouldn’t fall off when he let go. He turned from her and walked over to a couch. He picked up his shirt and pulled it on. “I don’t know.”