John growled, and Cassie jumped, knocking into the picture on the wall. She caught it as it slid off the nail holding it. It was a good catch, but didn’t count. The guys both stopped talking.
“Cassie,” John called to her.
She was caught. She hated her uncle’s super hearing.
Cassie walked around the corner into the kitchen. Nate was lounging at the table with an empty plate in front of him. He was still wearing the clothes from the night before. Nate ran his hands through his hair, patting it down a bit from where it was sticking out. Cassie’s intuition over who slept on the couch seemed to be confirmed, but she didn’t really want to know.
“The Bays would like it if you’d move in with them for the remainder of the school year,” John stated, trying to hide his anger. He said it like it was an invitation, though she had heard otherwise.
“No thanks,” Cassie replied, going over the stove to see if there was any food left. John was a jerk most of the time, but he was a great cook and always made large quantities.
Nate jumped up and followed right behind Cassie. She ignored him.
“It wasn’t a question,” Nate told her. She didn’t even turn around.
Cassie opened the top of the frying pan. The eggs and hash browns left over were still warm.
“Umm, yeah. I live in a free country. Where I live is my choice, and I choose to stay here.” Cassie walked past Nate without looking at him. She grabbed a plate from the cupboard next to where John stood, leaning against the counter, smirking at Nate.
“My mother will be by later to pick you up and make sure you have everything to apprentice with her,” Nate said as he shifted to stand next to Cassie while she dished out her food.
“I haven’t made my choice yet, but I wasn’t even considering your mother. I was thinking I’d probably do best to apprentice with my aunt if I can talk the coven into it. She’s technically blood, but since she’s my aunt, I’m half different. I thought that argument might work,” Cassie added, her plate full of food as she made her way to the table. Nate moved to block her way, and Cassie just stepped around him. She didn’t think the argument would work, but she didn’t need to tell Nate that.
“It isn’t a choice. You’re my mate and will do what I say.” Nate huffed, putting his hands on his hips and looking like he was about to throw a temper tantrum like a two-year-old.
Cassie sat down at the table and started to eat her food. Nate was behaving like a spoiled child that wasn’t getting his way. She had to try hard to not stoop to his level and argue back, and it was well worth it. Her calm disposition was making him even madder. His face began to turn red as he tried to sputter out some words.
“I have no plans to go anywhere with you,” Cassie replied, interrupting him. She picked up more hash browns on her fork and looked at them, not at Nate. “I’m not your mate, and you’re a bit crazy.”
Cassie easily could have added ‘hot’ to her description of him, even after sleeping in his clothes, but she wasn’t going to admit that. Cute as he was, last night was full of crazy. She wasn’t going to play that game.
Nate threw his arms in the air in frustration.
“Ugh! This is all your fault for not telling her anything.” Nate pointed his finger at John. “I will be back with my mother and father later to collect her. We will see if she can tell the alpha no.”
Nate walked out the back door, slamming it behind him.
John chuckled from the window above the sink as he watched Nate storm away.
“Man, I wish I had met your father. He had to have been one powerful night human for you to be able to stand up to all that energy.” John grabbed a plate and filled it with the last of the food, his second breakfast.
“Night human?” Cassie asked.
It wasn’t often John was in such a good mood so early. It was even odder that he was in a good mood because she had been a brat. She couldn’t help it; Nate pushed her buttons by ordering her around.
“Nate said he told you about us last night, and that you didn’t believe him,” John replied, digging into his food.
“Not you, too,” Cassie complained under her breath, still waiting for John to growl at her. Instead, he just laughed. Something had put him in a really great mood.
“Yes. Me, too, and yes to everyone else in town. You wanted to be part of this, so suck it up and believe in it,” John replied. His plate was half empty. He could inhale food like it was nothing. Cassie wasn’t even certain he had chewed it.
“And all that mate crap?” Cassie asked. Would John really make her live with Nate and marry him at such a young age?
“Oh, that stuff is true, also,” John answered, taking a swig of milk that emptied one of the two full cups he had in front of him.
“And the living with him part?” Cassie wrinkled her nose at that idea. John shrugged.
She really didn’t want to apprentice with Mrs. Bay. She didn’t do anything fun for the coven. She was more of a secretary than anything, and Cassie didn’t want to do that for the rest of her life. The town was boring enough without such a dead-end career. Cassie wanted to be out in the world. Traveling, seeing sights, helping others, just like Aunt Maria.
“When will Aunt Maria be back?” Cassie asked. Aunt Maria was the key. She would know how to play the system and get Cassie to apprentice with her. Cassie knew it. Aunt Maria had never let her down.
His smile faded a bit. “I don’t know.”
She took another bite of her eggs. Uncle John’s food was all gone, but he didn’t move to stand up from the table. Her head was bursting with questions. It had been a long while since John had been this happy; Cassie kind of wanted to try pressing her luck and getting all the answers she needed. She looked at him while she chewed and thought about which question to ask next. First, she had to know what the current situation truly was.
“Will Nate really be back later?” Cassie asked. She was a bit worried. Nate made it sound like John wouldn’t be able to help her.
“Unfortunately,” he replied, stacking his cups on his plate. “Why’d you go and have to do that exam? The Bays have been looking for a way to have you for years. I did just about everything I could to keep you from them. I even had the coven ban you from everything until you passed your exam.”
“You did that to me?” Cassie asked in disbelief. She felt very lost her whole life, like she belonged nowhere, and to find out John did it was a low blow.
“Cas,” John said, his hand grabbing her arm quicker than humanly possible as she tried to stand and leave the table.
Cassie glared at him and thought of using a spell on him. She knew at least ten that would hurt him temporarily, and she was very tempted to use one, but the look in his eyes made her stop.
“Cassie, we need to talk,” John told her, letting go of her arm. He stood, and she stared in shock at him. He was never that reserved, and he was anything but nice to her not just most of the time, rather all of the time in the fall.
Following her uncle to the living room, she watched him open the coffee table in the middle of the room and pull out a box below all the family photo books. Handing Cassie the box, he went to his seat in his recliner and sat on the edge as he watched her. She continued to stare at him, and he motioned for her to open the box.
Slowly, she lifted the lid off the box and found a knitted baby blanket inside of it. There was a photograph with it, but nothing more. Cassie looked at the picture of a young couple with a baby. The baby was wrapped in the blanket Cassie now held. She felt the edges of the blanket in her fingers and closed her eyes. Turning it over in her hands, she rubbed the stitching, then opened her eyes to look at it.
Cassandra Aisling
Cassie already knew that was her name, but to see it on the blanket confirmed her suspicions about the picture. She had never seen her parents before. It should have been a shock, but it wasn’t. It was the mother and father she had never met and would never meet. They were dead. It didn’t hurt badly when
she learned that before the exam, but seeing the two young faces in the picture made her finally feel it.
Her mother looked so much like her aunt it was unbelievable—they could have been twins. Her dark, almost black, hair hung long to frame her face and chocolate brown eyes. Cassie always wished to have those same eyes to fit in better with her family instead of the more honey brown color she had, but now she saw it. Her father was as fair as her mother was not. He was taller than her by over a head, with light sandy blond hair and crystal blue eyes. The magical color reminded her of the sky and the witches she had met over the summer. They all had blue eyes like that.
“Over sixteen years ago I got a call from your mother. She needed my help and couldn’t come to me. She gave me an address on the other side of town. There, I found a man waiting for me. He handed me a baby that wasn’t even a week old, and that photo. He kissed you, said some words to you in another language, and then left. I never saw or heard from them again. I hoped that they would come back some day. I knew that if my sister was around, she would do anything to get back to you. It wasn’t like Gabbi to leave family. I know she would have never left you unless there was a reason. I was hoping one day I would learn what it was.”
John watched Cassie, waiting for a reaction, but she didn’t reply.
“As you grew up, I got the feeling you were a bit different than everyone else. You seemed to come into your witch powers much younger than most, and when you began to tell me stuff about people that I knew you shouldn’t know, I tried to keep you a secret. It didn’t work. I knew that as soon as the coven found out about you, they would use you, so I did the only thing I thought would keep you safe. I told them that your father wasn’t from here and that you might not be part of the skinwalker line.”
“Skinwalker?”
“You’ve been told that there are two types of humans—night and day—correct?”
Cassie nodded.
“The night humans that live here are called skinwalkers. Our family line is from the skinwalkers, which, by default, makes you one.”
“Makes me a blood-drinking monster?” Cassie had never craved anything in her life beyond chocolate, and she was pretty sure they didn’t keep blood around the house to drink either.
John laughed. “You had to pick up on that part. No, you are not a blood-drinking monster. For most of us, the males inherit the gene to be a skinwalker, and the females to be a witch.”
“So you’re a blood-drinking monster?” Cassie was only half teasing as she smiled at her uncle. It had been years since he had been nice to her for so long.
“Blood-drinking monster? I guess you could describe us that way, but that brings to mind more of a horror movie. I’m a skinwalker, as my father was and his father before him. Your mother and aunt are witches, just like you and your grandmother. Your father showed up when he gave you to me, and I could smell he was a night human, but I couldn’t come up with any other reason to keep you from the coven,” John explained.
“So you knew my father, then?” Cassie asked tentatively.
“No. I had never seen him before that day, or again. It’s just that to be here in town, he had to be one of us. Most night humans are territorial. That’s why we never really have outsiders come to town. Anyone here has to be of the skinwalker bloodline.”
“And how do you know that?”
“There are wards around our territory and the scent keeps everyone out that shouldn’t be here. Did you ever wonder why I never let you leave town? If you were to accidentally go into another night human territory, it would mean negotiations to get you back if they found you,” John explained. He was still watching Cassie to gauge her reactions to all of it.
“But we live in a free country. We can travel and go where we want,” Cassie replied.
It sounded ridiculous the night before, but coming from John, she knew there was no joke. He didn’t know how to joke.
“You? Yes, you are a day human. Me? No, I’m a night human. We have to keep apart. Night humans don’t mix. Rather, they never used to mix. That’s changing, too, but it’s a tale for another day. For now, you need to know the basics.” John watched Cassie. She didn’t go running from the room, so that was a start.
Cassie continued to finger the blanket. It felt real and for some strange reason, it felt like home. She imagined the sheep that was shorn for the wool, and how it was woven into the blanket. She could almost see her mother doing it from beginning to end. That was more than strange. Her mother was a city person and had never lived on a farm, yet she enjoyed making the blanket.
“What are the basics?” Cassie asked tentatively, breaking the connection she had with the blanket and the images it was inducing in her.
“We live by the rule of one couple. The leader of the skinwalkers is the alpha and the leader of the coven. Most of the time, the leader is married to the alpha.”
“But Mrs. Bay doesn’t lead the coven,” Cassie pointed out.
“I said most of the time. I kind of screwed things up a bit. I was supposed to marry Holly Carsen and take over when Mikel stepped down. I chose not to marry her, so currently she’s the high priestess while Mikel is still the alpha.”
“Alpha, like werewolf stories alpha?” Cassie made the only connection she could.
John shook his head with faked disgust. “Really? You had to go there?”
Cassie smiled. It was fun to have her old uncle back.
“Fine. We’ll go with that. Anyone who is part of the clan must follow the alpha’s orders. It isn’t a choice. In a couple hours, when Nate brings his father with to collect you, I’ll have to hand you over to them. Nate’s father is our current alpha, and I am not,” John explained.
“Wait. You’re going to make me move away?” Cassie asked in disbelief. The Uncle John she was now talking to was so kind, she thought maybe he was actually the one she wanted to live with.
“I don’t want you to go anywhere. That’s why I fought the coven all the time about you. I wanted to protect you, but there’s nothing I can do now. In two weeks you’ll join the coven, and you are theirs to use just like they use Maria. You will have no choice but to do what they want.” Standing, John motioned for Cassie to follow.
“But what if I don’t want to go?”
John smiled. “I don’t know if they’ve ever run across someone that won’t do what they want. But it won’t matter. You stand no chance against three skinwalkers and a witch. You will be forced to do their bidding.”
Three? Nate, his father, and who else is coming with them? Cassie looked up at her uncle. And John. He nodded as the realization set in. She had taken him for granted all the years, but he probably was the only one keeping her safe.
“Do you remember when you were a kid, and Maria took you camping?” John led her into the kitchen.
Of course Cassie remembered. It was a disaster. They couldn’t get the tent pitched, and the potion supplies got rained on so they couldn’t use them for magic. It didn’t just rain but poured all day and night. Yes, that was a trip Cassie would never forget.
“Maria said there was some place you guys found that could be an emergency spot,” John continued as he opened the cupboards and began to pull out food.
Cassie wanted to ask what was going on but didn’t even know where to begin.
“Pack as little as you can, make sure to take those stinky outdoor clothes you have in the back of your closet. Walk through streams and keep your scent hidden. Go to that place and stay there until Maria returns. I can’t refuse the alpha as I am a skinwalker, but Maria is almost as strong as you. Without being married into the coven, she can make her own choices. She will help you.” John grabbed a brown paper bag and packed up all the food he had taken out.
“Are you telling me to run away?” Cassie asked in disbelief. She knew exactly the clothes John was talking about. She had them in the back of her closet and kept them there because he had said they stunk. She figured if she needed to get away some day, they w
ere the only clothes she had that didn’t smell like her, and since her uncle seemed to be part bloodhound that would be needed.
“I can’t ask you to do that. In fact, as soon as they get here I’ll have to help them. It is better if I don’t know anything,” John replied.
“But you haven’t even told me what a skinwalker is,” Cassie added as John put the bag of food in her hands.
“That lesson will have to wait. Now you need to leave, and I need to call my little sister,” John pushed Cassie toward the stairway.
“But …” Cassie wanted to resist more, but he had already pushed her up one stair and was gone from behind her when she turned around.
Cassie had ridden her uncle’s moped as far as she thought was safe before hopping off. Yes, her big, burly uncle rode a moped. It was a sight to see, and she was a little sad to just leave it in the parking lot at the park. She got the understanding from her uncle this needed to be a very covert operation.
Cassie walked into the park and quickly found the stream leading to the lake she spent many hours at in the summer. She began walking down the stream, doing her best to ignore the freezing water as it seeped into her shoes.
The trees above waved in the wind as it began to pick up. The breeze was cool, but it would be close to freezing once the sun was down. The hike was going to take a few hours, and she had to backtrack around town to head the opposite direction of where she parked her uncle’s moped. She never did have a lot of time to spend outside with all the time she had spent learning, but she knew enough about how to cover her trail. She had been out with her aunt on several occasions and was beginning to think it might have been training all along for this very day.
Cassie stepped out of the stream and began her walk up the hill. She’d like it better on the way down, but then she would be in another river.
It took longer than Cassie had wanted, but since she stopped every thirty minutes to cast a covering spell, she should have expected that much. The run-down cabin was hidden ahead, but with her keen sense of the trees around her, she knew exactly where it was.