Shifter Magick (16 page)

Later that morning,
Kera sat in
lecture
.
Her pen tapped her knee like she’d seen Maddox do a hundred times.
The
sun
had come
out
and the humidity made her clothes stick to her skin. She wished she had woken with enough time to stop by her dorm and shower but she could barely get herself to unravel from the comfort of Maddox’s arms.
She could smell him everywhere.
Dreaming about being in his
arms
, then waking up in his arms had been… nice. Kera felt her skin tingle. She heard her phone vibrate in her purse and reached for it.

Wait for me after class.

Maddox had taken
her to her dorm to get her books and crutche
s
,
then dropped her off at the door of her classroom that morning.
They hadn’t spoken much about anything since last night.
There was fear that had rooted itself inside her. Uncertainty clawed into her throat when she considered her current predicament.
Her mother was a stranger now. Her secret was out and a new world had been opened before her eyes
. In the midst of it all she
had
Maddox set in her sights.

His actions last night had shocked and hurt her. She hadn’t realized how painful it was to think about the possibility of him turning away from her. When she thought he could turn her over to his father for testing or whatever horrible things that had run through her mind when he asked her to come with him, her heart had actually hurt. The pain wasn’t the hollow ache that happened when she thought of her mother’s death. It was a twisting knife in a fresh wound.

Her father was right about one thing… a relationship was going to be work.

Her phone vibrated a second time.

Just landed. Meeting with the dean at 2. Meet me for lunch?

Speak of the devil. Kera read her father’s text a few times while her heart hammered in her chest. She caught a few curious glances from the students sitting beside her and shoved her phone back in her purse. The professor droned at the front of the class but Kera didn’t catch much of it. She hadn’t even attempted to listen. When her phone vibrated again Kera checked the message through the opening in her purse.

Bring the friend.

Kera shook her head in dismay.
See you for lunch.
She texted back. While her fingers worked the keys, the back of her hand pressed against the weight of the box in the side compartment of her purse. Her fingers trembled as she unzipped the small side pocket and pulled out the small box. Her mind went back to the day she had
opened the box. Inside she had imagined keys to a new car. Just what every sixteen year old girl would have wanted. Now she realized the dream had been unreasonable. Her parents hadn’t been rich. Her mother had been excited to give her the necklace.

Kera pulled out the ornate key and fastened the chain around her neck. The metal tingled against her skin and Kera shivered. She felt her purse vibrate again.

She read the text after she put the box back in the side pocket of her purse.

Your dad says we have plans for lunch. Were you going to invite me?

Kera felt her temperature rise and she clinched her jaw against a
n
inhuman growl that threatened to escape her throat.
She wasn’t helpless but she was starting to get the picture that the two men in her life thought she was.

Her phone vibrated a few more times but she ignored it and stared into space with her fingers caressing the necklace around her neck. Her thoughts returned to the giver of the gift
. Her mother has
a kind
heart. Knowing what she did about her ability, she wondered if somehow her mother had lost control like Nick had. The guilt over possibly hurting a friend so bad they almost died could be the reason her mother never spoke about her past. It had been the reason Maddox pulled away from his family.

Kera had the sudden urge to talk to Nick. She shuddered at the thought of seeing Andrew again.
Her ankle throbbed in a painful memory of his teeth sinking into her flesh. Her pulse skyrocketed and the pen in her hand became a life line. She closed her eyes and tapped it on her knee as her other hand caressed her necklace.
People began to pack up and leave as she sat trying to calm herself down. The panic was unexpected and wholly
unwelcome. The implications of what happened had finally broken through the barrier of her denial.

Andrew attacked her. A boy she had met a sum of two times before he came at her full arsenal with razor sharp teeth and deadly intent. The memory of the copper scent of her blood invaded her nose and flashes of her mother flinted across her mind.

Kera groaned and shut her eyes tighter. The pen she held snapped and ink coated her fingers and palm. The smell jolted her back to the present. The room was half empty. People glanced her way as they past her on their way out. In her lap, the blue ink dripped onto her jeans. She had a thin line trailing down to her elbow. What a mess. Sighing, Kera tore a few pages of paper from her spiral and smeared around the mess more. Frustration pricked at the edges of her already frazzled control.

“
What happened?” The smooth balm of Maddox’s voice eased her frayed nerves. He sat in the seat beside her and grabbed her shaking hand. “Look at me Kera.”

She met his eyes and he smiled softly.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Kera shook her head and looked down at where their hands were joined. She gasped and
brushed her thumb over his knuckles.
“What did you do?”

He stilled her hand and pulled it up to his mouth. His lips were soft as he brushed them over the back of her hand. “I’ll tell you later. We need to get you all cleaned up.” He leaned over and brushed the tip of his nose in the soft spot behind her ear and inhaled. “You smell like me.” He whispered into her ear.

Kera’s heart skipped a beat.
“I like it.”
S
he said softly.

She felt his nose trail against her cheek, and then he met her eyes. “Me too.” His smile was breathtaking and just a little naughty.

Kera found herself blushing. She shifted in her seat. The ink mess on her hands and jeans made her flush even more. How could a guy like Maddox Howell possibly find her attractive? She didn’t have to admit to herself this was the first time she wondered if he was around because she was functional. She had kissed him first. He hadn’t returned the favor until he found out she was quick to heal. If it she had a brain in her head she would realize that with his strength he is afraid to hurt someone like Nick had. She was his out. His safe zone. If he hurt her, she’d heal.

The idea was upsetting, but it was the only one she had. It was almost scary how quickly she was falling for him. Her years of training in no emotion had faltered when it came to him. Now it was up to sheer determination. She wasn’t going to
let him persuade her with any more of his kisses and she definitely wasn’t going to give him another first of hers until she knew it was worth it. Maybe with a ring and a preacher present. Her dad would be on her side on this one all the way. Plus, he was about to
meet Maddox. She felt better knowing nothing was going to happen between them so she didn’t have to lie to her dad.

And if she didn’t lie to her dad, Maddox would never know how she felt about him.

She wanted to keep it that way.

Thirty minutes later, Kera was scrubbing her arm. The skin was pink and raw but the ink was practically permanent. The dorm showers were a few doors down from her room where Maddox waited. He hadn’t told her yet how he hurt his hand and he also didn’t show any sign of letting her out of his sight. She would have to talk to him about that. She shampooed her hair to give her arm a rest for a moment. The bubbles collected around the antique key necklace she couldn’t bring herself to take off. Hopefully it wasn’t tarnishing the metal. She felt some sort of normalcy in wearing a token of her mother after what she found out about her. It wa
s kind of like picking a team. It was e
ither creepy Luke who she’d never met before or her mother
who
bore and raised her.

The guilt she carried around with her was heavily based o
f
f the amount of love she had fo
r her mother. Her mother hadn’t deserved to die.

She rubbed at her eyes and tried to tell herself that the bubbles were making her cry. There wasn’t any soap in her eyes.

After she dressed and toweled h
er hair
. Her stomach was growling. She was chomping at the bit to see her dad and she still hadn’t called the admissions office. Truthfully, she had no idea what she was going to ask. “Hey I don’t think I applied the right way,” or “Can I see my application, I forgot what I wrote.” Didn’t really cut it. It was humiliating to admit how blind she had been living the past five years. She was awake suddenly and in this strange alternate reality she really could shift into a large jungle cat
and her crush was a white wolf. Her mother was dead and her uncle wanted a book from her that she’d never seen.

In about ten minutes her father would meet the first guy she kissed and they would have to logically reason out this strange predicament without letting her father in on the big secret that she might possibly be in danger from a boy who could turn into a wolf.

Kera
packed her things into her cloth shower bag and
grabbed her crutches, grateful that she was able to shower and change without anyone walking in. She didn’t want to have to pretend to be hurt while dressing. Made her way down the hall with her hand full and stopped at the entry of her room. She could already hear them inside.

“Like I said last night, I care for her.” Maddox said.

“That doesn’t mean you two should rush into anything. She hasn’t dated or spoken to anyone on a consistent basis in five years. She’s trading in one male figure in her life for another. You
’
r
e
young, you don’t know what you’re getting into.”

Kera dropped her
shower bag
in shock.
Had her father just aired her past grievances to Maddox without a second thought to how that would affect her? She swayed on her feet as the door opened. Maddox looked directly at her then at the floor where her things were. He leaned down and picked up her bag.
We’ll talk about that later.
Maddox spoke so softly, she knew it was for her ears only. As he straightened, she noticed his eyes had darkened. He looked angry. Was it because he knew how secluded she’d been?

“Kera.” Her father came out into the hall and hugged her. “Looks like we’re all here. Let’s go get some lunch.”
He shot Maddox a dark look, leaving no room for argument.

A muscle tensed in Maddox’s jaw but he nodded at her father. “Is there anything you need from your room Kera?”

“My purse.” She looked at the shower bag that held her ink stained clothes and soap. “You can toss that on the floor.”

After Maddox traded her shower bag for her purse, he locked her dorm and handed it to her with her key inside. Her father watched everything will a calm but blank expression. This is not how she expected this to go. She felt her mind sifting through the events as both men helped her down the stairs. Her father had taken a cab from the airport and insisted that they take Kera’s jeep. Sam drove and Maddox gave directions from the seat behind her.

When they pulled up to the restaurant, her father looked back at Maddox
then to the hole in the wall restaurant
.

“Best BBQ in town.” Maddox told him before he got out of the car.

Kera sat there in silence and wondered if this was how it was going to be the whole time. She looked over at Maddox when he opened the door for her and offered him a small smile. He held his hand out to her, offering to help her out of the car. She sighed and took it. The tension in her chest unraveled a little at the electric energy of her skin against his. She ended up against his side, leaning on him for support as he shut the door behind her. She wanted to object when he reached for her crutches.

“
How is your ankle?” Her father asked as he rounded the car.

“Fine.”
The parking lot was uneven tar and rock. Her father flanked her on the left and Maddox on the right. Kera wanted to drop the crutches and hop up and down on her ankle and yell
it’s a miracle, I’m healed. Back off.
These two men were starting to crowd her. She didn’t mind if one or the other did
it individually, what bothered her was that they somehow pitted themselves against each other. She didn’t know if she could handle it for much longer.

She was grateful for the reprieve when they sat down and turned their attention to the menu.

“They miss you at the diner.”

“I’ll bet.” Kera glanced at Maddox. He noticed but still didn’t smile. Was he still angry?

“Do you have a job Maddox?” Her father asked him.