Beautiful Souls (24 page)

    
              I gasped.

    
              “That’s precisely why your mother doesn’t shape-shift.”

    
              I cast a heart-felt and understanding glance my mom’s direction, and she locked eyes with me for an instant.

    
              “I just couldn’t ever bring myself to do it,” she explained. “Please, don’t get me wrong, I have absolutely no objection to any of the other Witches or Warlocks who participate in this area of magic, but like I said…I simply couldn’t force myself to ever go through with it.”

     
              “I don’t think I fully understand. Why couldn’t you go through with it? What’s so bad about possessing a soul if the animal has already died? I mean, I understand why it would be difficult to kill any living creature, but hunting is legal so…”

    
              My mom interrupted, “That’s not only where my problem lies, the killing part you know. My problem is that I could never bring myself to interrupt the paths of those beautiful souls traveling to their destined afterlives. That’s what is meant to be, you see…crossing over, reincarnation, heaven or hell, whatever. I couldn’t bring myself to step in and interrupt destiny just to possess a soul for myself.”

    
              “Oh,” I said simply, feeling somewhat deflated.

    
              Shape-shifting had seemed so intriguing to me. The entire time my dad had explained the ins and outs of how shifting worked, I had imagined which animal I would soul-possess and shift into first. I had already imagined shifting into a bird, a cat, or possibly a deer. Then, my mind switched gears and went into overdrive and the possibilities widened to more terrifying creatures such as wolves, bears, or maybe even a mountain lion like Leo. 

    
              I had imagined the two of us side by side, morphing into our animal selves, defending our territory and fighting off darkness. I was beginning to awaken to the thought that I was completely and totally head over heals for Leo. I had to be if I was imaging our futures like this. Even in the wake of finding out that I, he, and our entire families were Wizards, I still found myself day-dreaming about a future life with Leo. A supernatural magical life with Leo. I continued to wrap my mind around this news, not to mention being a chosen one --- or a
Natural
as my mom called it --- but this life was beginning to show signs of great possibilities.

    
              My mom’s voice broke through my thoughts, “Honey, please don’t allow my decisions and hesitations to influence what you may do. I would rather you did choose soul-possession if I had my own way. I think that practicing this kind of magic would help you immensely in your future as a Natural. Just promise me you will consider everything we’ve talked about tonight with an open mind, and that you’ll make the best decision for you under nobody else’s influence, okay?” she asked, as she reached over and patted my knee.                   “Sure, Mom. Of course.”

    
              I already knew my answer. If Leo was a Shifter, then I would inevitably be a Shifter, too. I would be brave when the time presented itself, and I would step into the path of a soul. I would intervene and delay the return of a beautiful soul to its ever-after in the hope that one day when I die, all my souls I’d possessed would be allowed to move on to their destinies. This was my consolation so that I could allow myself to commit such an act.

    
              “All right then,” she stood from her seated position on the sofa. “Enough of all this for tonight. Come lay down here…scoot, honey.” She waved my dad away then continued, “You need to try to get some sleep. It’s been a crazy day and you must be tired. I’m sure we’ll be fine to head home in the morning. Leo’s father will be here to pick us up since we can only fly at night. You’d better get some sleep now while we have this cozy cottage all to ourselves,” she spoke while grinning at me.

    
              My dad stood, shooed off his seat by my mom, and allowed me to have the entire sofa to myself. My mom pulled a large antique quilt from an old wooden chest next to the fireplace. I made myself comfortable, pulled a worn hand-stitched, needle-point pillow under my head, and stared into the still blazing fire as my eyelids grew heavy. There was no use trying to fight off the on-setting sleep.

    
              This night had been terrifying, exciting, and exhausting. After only a few short minutes, I was beginning to doze, falling into the dreams beckoning me. I could just barely make out the words of my parents whispering in the kitchen as I drifted off to sleep.

    
              “How do you think she’s coping with it all?” my mom asked my dad in a hushed whisper.

    
              “Very well, very well. Better than we ever expected, I think,” my dad replied quietly.

    
              “Do you think she’ll be able to handle it? She’s still so young.”

  
                “Yes, she’ll be fine. She’ll be great. You know that’s true.”

    
              “Yeah, well, you didn’t explain…” my mom’s voice trailed and dropped off so low that I could no longer make out her words. “…about
human
soul-possession.”

    
              “All in good time. We’ve laid enough on her for tonight,” my dad responded.

                                  
Chapter 10.

The Good & The Bad

good

/good/

Adjective

To be desired or approved of.

Noun

That which is morally right; righteousness.

Adverb

Well.

                  We received the all-clear sign early the next morning which just happened to be a tiny and very beautiful little hummingbird tapping relentlessly at the cottage’s kitchen window. The tapping only ceased after my mom rapped back on the window seven times. I was told later that the hummingbird was Mrs. Stanley in one of her shift forms.
Befitting
, I thought.

    
              My parents and I quickly straightened up the cottage, returning it to its original state when we arrived late last night, then started out through the forest toward the nearest road. There, we were picked up and driven home by Mr. McMyllin.

The next month passed in a haze, as if it were all a dream.

                   Another letter found it’s way into my bedroom, just as off-kilter as the previous three, and I tossed it away into the trash and never spoke a word about it to anyone --- just the same as the previous three. I didn’t have time in my life to deal with the non-sense of the letters, and I tried to wipe their appearances out of my mind completely. The only thing I couldn’t get passed was how they continued to show up in my bedroom, invading my personal space. I had to admit there was something slightly eerie about them, but I didn’t have time to chase down prank-players.

    
              Leo and my mom had been taking it upon themselves to be my personal Wizardry tutors. They took turns, swapping days, in order to fill me in on every single detail that our powers entailed.

    
              My mom took over explaining the ‘hows and whys’ of it all, while Leo was a fantastic example of demonstrating our powers. Together we spent countless hours practicing our skills and never neglected an opportunity to sneak in a kiss or two when a moment presented itself; always when we thought parents and teachers weren’t looking, of course.

    
              I found fun little ways to pass the mundane hours at school. My favorite of these was to send notes to Leo while we were in class --- different classes. I simply had to write a message down on paper, or any surface for that matter, and teleport it onto Leo’s paper, wherever he happened to be. The message would immediately disappear after it had been sent; therefore, it was undetectable by the teachers. Perfect.                    I had discovered, with the help of Leo and my mom, that I had more powers than I’d ever dreamed possible; and so far, at least one power that seemed to be unique only to me. Leo and I discovered it one day while practicing a few powers in my living room, because it had now become too cold outside to leave the house for very long. The outdoors was definitely more accommodating, but for now the living room would have to do.

    
              We worked on making a glass of water disappear then reappear. My first attempt was rather novice. The glass disappeared, leaving only the water behind to spill all over my mom’s coffee table and drip down the table leg to pool on top of her antique rug on the floor --- or so we thought.

    
              Upon closer inspection, Leo and I realized that the water had actually pooled over some type of invisible protective layer. Not one single drop had actually come in contact with the coffee table or rug. Leo looked mesmerized, and I was astounded.

    
              I had no inclination as to how I accomplished such a feat, but I could only assume it had been connected to my protective instincts, possibly brought on by panic.

    
              Leo wanted to experiment a bit more with my unexpected and unique power. He told me that he was going to disapparate the headband I was wearing in my hair, and he wanted me to attempt to keep him from doing so using the very same protective instincts I reacted with when the water spilled.

    
              “Are you ready?”

    
              “Yeah…I think so.”

    
              “You sure?”

    
              “Leo, just do it already. I can’t react instinctively if you’re warning me every step…”

    
              A tugging sensation tingled at the top of my head, breaking my words off mid-sentence. I did exactly as Leo wanted. I protected what was mine. The headband was my favorite after all, adorned with a solitary row of rhinestones across the top. Simultaneously, I watched as Leo was knocked back onto the couch, conveniently placed behin
d
him, as I felt the tug against my scalp relinquish its pull.

    
              Leo stared at me for a moment, total disbelief and something else --- maybe amusement --- washed across his face. I couldn’t quite tell what he was thinking, and I grew a little worried.

    
              “What did I…are you okay?”

    
              “I don’t know. I mean, I’m fine. Wow, what was that?”

    
              “I don’t know really. I don’t know what I did. I just didn’t want you taking my headband and messing up my hair, so I tried to keep you away. Why? What happened to you?”

    
              “I’m not sure. I got knocked back by a, a force.”

    
              “I don’t think I did that,” I responded confused.

    
              “I don’t know, maybe,” Leo said. A grin crept across his gorgeous face and his drop-dead handsome features lightened as awareness of something I knew nothing about crept over him.

    
              Leo bolted across the room toward me with a smile as wide and joyous as I’d ever seen. I melted instantaneously; my legs grew weak and my head fogged. I was continuously amazed --- even after all these years of protest and insistence on my part to maintain a façade of merely friendship --- at how his amazingly perfect face, handsomely rugged features, and beaming stare could make me feel as if we were the only two people in the whole world.

    
              Leo wrapped me tightly in his muscular arms then picked me up by my waist. He shouted and laughed as we spun and danced in circles around my living room, and soon enough his contagious laughter had me giggling too. My mom ran into the room, panic stricken from all the chaos and noise that traveled through the walls into the kitchen where she’d been cooking dinner.