Shifting Shadows (Sparks Collide Trilogy) (12 page)

William was rarely home but when he
was, he and Jackie fought nonstop. I’d witnessed it time and again when Will
and I were kids. It appeared William Sr. had come home for the day to put one
last performance in for his son as he moved out. We didn’t need our
hypersensitive ears to hear him either.

“Well, look what you’ve done. We
finally get him back and you push him out. Good job Jackie. Was he interfering
in your torrid affairs? Home when you wanted privacy?”

“Don’t you dare put this on me,
William. Maybe if you were around more, he’d want to stay. You ever think about
that or did your seventeen year old looking secretary forget to schedule you to
go home?”

He got in her face “Oh, I bet you’d
love that. Get me home so you can nag me to death. You’d probably spend my life
insurance on shoes. I have an idea, why don’t you go shopping and buy yourself
a clue.”

Will stepped in between his parents
with the last box and walked toward the car. He got in and didn’t even turn
around. In truth, his parents probably only acknowledged his leaving so they
could blame each other for it.

I drove back to our house and we set
Will up in one of the spare rooms downstairs. When that was finished,
Logan
went to work and
Trent
went to grab us breakfast from our
favorite bagel place.

I went to wait in the living room,
giving Will space to move in when he came over to the couch and sat with me.
“Thank you. I know you don’t want me here but thank you.”

I looked at him, “I know you did it
just to get away from the bullshit at home. I get it and I’m glad you’re away
from them but let’s not pretend you’re not also here to baby-sit me.”

He shook his head. “If that’s why I’m
here then that’s your fathers plan but I’m not apart of it. I wanted to be
here. I’m the one who mentioned it to him.”

I couldn’t even begin to understand why
he’d want to be here specifically but then again Trent and Logan were here so
he was probably happy to be living with them. “Then you should know that my
father ordered me to thank you… but I’m not doing it for him. You saved me from
having to confront him about my mom and from having my Alpha status stripped
away. So thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I-” The front door
opened.

“Food’s here.”
Trent
said as he walked into the living room
holding coffees in one hand and a bag of the best bagels in town in the other.
“You guys are so lucky you have me, I charmed Priscilla into adding muffins
into the order
fo
’ free.”

I nodded, impressed. Priscilla was the
woman who owned the bagel shop and she was one tough chick. “Sweet, you get
chocolate chip?” I asked.

“Dude, of course.” He did a little
spin. “Bow down to the master.”

Will and I rolled our eyes in unison.
“Thanks, man” Will said. “I got to get to work so I’ll take mine to go. See you
guys later.”

“Peace”
Trent
said and I nodded, our standard
greeting and goodbye.

Trent
turned toward me. “So, you ready to go
surfing, it’s sick out there.”

I laughed. That’s pretty much all he
thought about, food, girls, and surfing and I don’t think it was in that order.
“Sure. Why the hell not?” The drive was a little over an hour to the beach but
it was summer, after all.

Monday was pretty slow at work so Doc
let me in on one of the emergency consultations. A man was in with his dog
named Prince. Prince managed to swallow his owner’s house key. It was stuck in
his stomach and was causing him severe pain. It hadn’t made its way into his intestines
yet so our best bet was to help him throw it up. With my gift I could stop the
pain and make it easier for his body to do what it should.

My own intrinsic magic was the gift of
healing. It didn’t require much on my part and it left almost no residual magic
behind. It was the reason I wanted to be a veterinarian in the first place. My
gift was too risky to use on humans but it could very easily be used on animals
and I was great at it. Animals couldn’t talk so if they were miraculously
healed, it’s not like they could tell anyone about it.

I missed my pets at home in
Boston
but the apartment wouldn’t allow for
them. I promised myself that after one year of Vet school, if I thought I could
handle it, I would get a rescued puppy in need of a home. I’d get another cat
but somehow my cat in
Boston
, Elvis, would find out and be angry
about it. Cats always knew those kinds of things and they made you pay. For
now, I satisfied myself with the animals at Bark n’ Bite.

The little guy was whining and it broke
my heart. I just had to get Doc and the patient out of the room briefly so I
could get to work. In a stroke of luck, Doc wanted to move to the operating
room and I volunteered to carry Prince. The owner who kept mentioning “he
needed to get to work and his wife would kill him if she found out” didn’t seem
to mind that I carry his dog. I took my time gathering Prince up, I didn’t want
to jostle him too much as I let Doc and the man walk out in front of me.

Once I had Prince in my arms, I pressed
my hand to his stomach and then to his throat. Tiny sparks of heat flew from my
palm and into the canine. In a flash the sparks disappeared and the whining
stopped. I quickly caught up to Doc in his O.R. and placed Prince on the table.
I pet his head and Prince licked me. No more than five minutes later, Prince
expelled the house key. The man wasn’t as grateful as you would imagine but he
paid without comment and left.

“You must be a good luck charm, Kira.”
Doc said. I smiled innocently.

“I guess so. I’m just happy Prince is
ok, a key could do some serious damage because its shape is irregular, right?”

“That’s correct, very good m’dear.
You’re going to be a great doctor one day. Thank you for your help.”

“And thank you for allowing me to
observe.”

“Your welcome, I’ll be in my office in
the back, please alert me when the next patient comes in.”

The phone rang and I answered Doc “Will
do” before picking up. “Bark n’
Bite
Animal
Hospital
, this is Kira, how can I assist you?

Trent and I pulled into our garage,
back from the beach around
6 p.m.
We walked in to find Will and Demi
watching T.V. on the couch. The second
Will
saw me, he
took Demi’s hand and headed for his room. So this is how it’s going to be? He’s
freaking ridiculous.

I yelled loudly “Hey guys, how’s it
going?”

Neither responded.

“Cool. Well I’ll see you two lovebirds
later.”

Trent
looked to me and shrugged “I don’t get
it, man. I thought you guys were good.”

“Guess not.” I responded. Will’s
non-reaction was probably the worst thing of all of it. He wasn’t some
confrontation-shy nobody. He was a strong, kick-ass Beta Wolf. He’s never been
much for talking but he’s not the type to run from a fight either. He ignored
me like he ignored his parents. He’d always said he did that because they
weren’t worth his time. I clearly fell into that category now. He used to be my
God-Damn best friend in the whole effing world, my brother from the moment we
met as infants and now he couldn’t bother to tell me Hi. It started when my Mom
died and he went away to school. He wouldn’t even talk to me, never mind let us
fight it out. Whatever the problem was, I didn’t even know anymore. It messed
us up so badly. I knew things weren’t perfect between but I at least thought we
could be civil now. It made me so damn angry that I hit my boiling point again
and felt numb.

Trent
placed his keys on the counter.

I asked, flatly “You want to hit the
pub?”

“You know it. I’m-a shower and be down
in a little.”

“Same” I said.

We got to the pub and met up with
Annabella, Logan, Brandon, Max, and Mena. We all sat in our usual booth and
Trent
told everyone what happened with Will
and Demi. I wasn’t planning on telling anyone but maybe it was better than
letting them guess at the situation. I wasn’t even sure what the situation was
and I was in it.

No one seemed surprised so I just asked
“Can anyone give me a clue as to their problem, exactly?” It wasn’t an order. I
never ordered my pack to do anything because it was messed up to take away free
will like that. I did, however, put enough authority into my voice for them to
consider answering.

Logan
spoke first “So, you guys were good
yesterday and now he’s playing the silent game?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” I said with more
venom than I meant to.

Logan
put down his beer and said, “You
should just talk to him.”

Mena spoke up “Actually I think you
should talk to Demi first.”

My eyes snapped to her. “Why, did she
say something?” “No but think about it, she’s never been quiet about her
opinions before. Out of the two of them, she’s more likely to tell you what’s
up.”

I shook my head. “Maybe… I don’t know
and honestly I don’t think I give a shit anymore.” I was over guessing at their
motives. It’s officially their problem and not mine.

Mena spoke again but she did not meet
my eyes. “This is dumb, Jay. Just talk to them.”

I knew she was right but I wasn’t sure
I wanted to hear what they would say. “It’s cool guys. It’s really not a big
deal and not a…neighborhood issue. Can everyone just drop it and drink?” There,
end of discussion.

The guys grumbled agreements but I
noticed out of the corner of my eye, Annabella slip away.

“Hey Kira, it’s me Annabella” I lifted
the phone closer to my ear and readjusted my grip as I’d almost dropped the
phone into the mug of tea I’d been making when it rang. Not even my magic could
save technology if it’d been submerged in hot water. Not that I would risk
using my magic for that anyway. I hoped I was being honest with myself.

“Hey, how are you?” I said as I picked
up the honey.

“I’m good. I was wondering if you
wanted to come to the pub.”

Christina was at Xander’s place again
so I had the apartment to myself. “Don’t laugh but I’d actually planned on
throwing on comfy sweats and reading a book tonight.”

“I won’t laugh, I’m actually jealous of
those plans but I’m hoping you’ll ditch that and hang out with me anyway.” She
sounded even more hyper than usual.

“I don’t know, I mean I just made tea.
Do you want to hang out tomorrow?”

“Yes, let’s do lunch but don’t make me
beg, get your butt out here. This is peer pressure at its finest. You can stay
in tomorrow night.”

I laughed. I had a lazy day yesterday
with Christina out by our apartment’s pool for the most of the day so it’s not
like I really needed to stay in at all. “Sure, when?”

“Now, if you can. Most of us are here
and I wanted you to join.”

“Yeah, I can probably swing by. Give me
like 20 minutes.”

“Sure, yeah, that’s perfect. You’re the
best. See you soon.”

“Okay, see you.” I hung up and frowned
at my tea. That was kind of strange, even for Annabella, I thought. Then I took
my mug with me to sip while I got ready.

I arrived at the pub to find Annabella
waiting for me at the entrance. She grabbed my arm “Hi, thank you for coming.
Come with me.”

I laughed as she pulled me through the
door “Annabella, what the heck. What are you doing? Slow down.”

She pulled me into a barstool next to
Jay “Here sit, I’ll be right back.”

“Um, ok…” I half smiled at Jay “Hey.”

“Hey” he returned.

“Do you have any clue what Annabella’s
up to? I’m really confused. Does she take any medications that I should know
about?” I followed his eyes as he looked to me then to Annabella over in the
corner speaking with
Logan
.

“I don’t know she’s always been an odd
chick. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

“If you say so. So what’s up? How have
you been?”

He ran his hands through his brown
hair. “I don’t know. It’s been a weird past few days.”

“You’re telling me. At least you missed
the drama at the party.”

His head tilted “What drama?”

I faced the bar, not looking at him.
“Oh, it’s not important, some idiot wouldn’t take no for an answer. I handled
it. Well, some of the guys did but yeah.”

“The kid you were dancing with?
Daniel?”

I peered at him “Yeah, I didn’t even
realize you saw me.”

As usual Jay kept a poker face so I
couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “What happened?” He asked.