“Ugh!” I growled and told him aboutthe vampire who met with Sylvia and how he seemed interested in finding me.
“So a vampire tried to use compulsionon Sylvia to give up your location?”
I chewed a fingernail. “Yes.”
Kai’s eyes went yellow and his nailsgrew to points. I could see patches of fur rippling along his arms as he triedto fight the change.
“Kai?” I was scared.
“If the bloodsuckers think they canhave you, they have another thing coming. You’re mine. Mine to protect.” He wasbreathing rapidly. He slammed his fist into the steering wheel making the carhorn honk.
I placed a hand on his arm. “Calmdown, you’re scaring me.”
His fingernails immediately wenthuman short, the fur turned to skin and his eyes went brown. “Aurora, I’m sosorry. I would never hurt you. I was mad at the bloodsuckers. Not you. Neveryou.” He reached out for my face and I flinched. I don’t know why I did; toomany years of getting hit when my dad was pissed off. The remote ran out ofbatteries, smack Aurora. My mother burnt dinner, punch Aurora. He was drunk andbored, put a cigarette out on Aurora’s neck. I rubbed the scar at the back ofmy neck.
I shivered thinking of the memorieswhile Kai shrank back, hurt. I grabbed his hand. “I have issues, okay?” was allI could offer at the moment.
He stroked my hand with his thumb.“Okay.”
He started the car and we drove therest of the trip in silence.
Vampires
We got a call from the pack abouthalfway home, telling us that Sylvia was waiting for us at Kai’s house.
As we drove up the long tree-lineddriveway to Kai’s, I still couldn’t fathom how much money this land had costhim. He must own half the mountain. The pack lived in twenty separate housesall within a few miles of each other. He owned every single one of them. “So,my mother will be coming by tomorrow to meet you. I think I should know a littlebit more about how you became so… financially comfortable,” I added politely.
He smiled. “I am a very, very oldwolf, Aurora. I have had hundreds of years to amass this wealth. I have abachelor’s degree in Engineering, a master’s degree in Finance, and I evenwent to medical school. I’ve tried my hand at day trading on the stock market.I dabbled in real estate and I own some franchises.”
My mind was trying to fathom all ofthis information when I smelled something weird. I inhaled deeply.
“Witches have a distinct smell, as dovampires. As you learn more about your wolf, your sense of smell will improve,”Kai offered, parking the car.
“Do you trust Sylvia?” I probed. Sheseemed nice enough to me.
“I don’t trust witches. That beingsaid, I have known Sylvia for a long time and she has never given me cause notto trust her. When it comes to your safety, I trust no one outside this pack.” Hegot out of the car and gestured for me to do the same.
I unlocked my seatbelt and scrambled to catchup with him.
“That smell; that witch smell. Do Ismell like that? She said I was part witch.”
Kai stared into my eyes. “You smell amazing,but yes, you have smelled faintly of witch since I found you at the accident. Iknew you weren’t full blooded because your blood didn’t taste like witch, butthere was something about your blood that had me puzzled. You weren’tcompletely human. It’s not possible though, so I put it to the back of my mind.Now I’m not so sure.”
I recoiled at the thought. My wholelife I thought I was human but then Kai turned me into a werewolf. Maybe I wasdestined to be supernatural all along. “What puzzled you about my blood?” I wascurious.
We had entered the house and wereoutside his office. “You know when you go to take a sip of water and yourealize you have grabbed your friend’s glass of Sprite instead? The fizz shocksyour tongue and you weren’t prepared for it. That is your blood.”
With that, he opened his office doorwhere Sylvia was waiting. My blood tasted like Sprite? Gross.
Sylvia sat across from Kai. Her neckwas adorned with necklaces of blue stones with gold flecks. I leaned againstthe wall as Kai waited for her to speak.
She quirked a smile. “We are meetingall too often for your liking I’m sure, but there is a matter to discuss.”
I stepped forward. “The vampires areafter me.”
Sylvia’s face showed genuinesurprise. So she must not have been aware that I had a vision of her. That toldme two things. One, that her powers weren’t limitless and two, that she couldbe trusted. She didn’t have to come warn me.
“You have the gift of a seer?” Sheasked me puzzled.
