Chapter 27

Emely

When I entered the room, she was still asleep, but fortunately, I was the only one here. The Blair cousins had probably taken some unnecessary extra courses in mathematics, which was Quatura-typical and idiotic. Something you didn't really need when you owned almost the entire inner city as it was. But Grace had always wanted the extra credit to make her vain mother proud.

I tiptoed over to my bed with care, where somewhere I must have left my cell phone, which I had forgotten here this morning.

"Julian..."

I immediately wheeled around when I heard a faint whisper from the other corner of the room.

Great . Sleeping Beauty had awoken from her slumber. Now, of all times , when I was here. Couldn't she have slept a few hours longer?

"Julian, where am I?"

I rolled my eyes in annoyance.

Bayla sounded a little confused, and judging by her scrunched-up face, things had really hit her hard yesterday.

"I'm not Julian," I replied, perhaps a little too harshly, and turned back to my bed.

I threw back the black blanket, but there was nothing there. Crap , where had I put it?

Next, I looked in the top nightstand drawer, but since I hadn't even used the nightstand until now, I pushed it right back shut. I guess it really was still home then.

"Emely, there you are."

I turned around with a jerk to look at Bayla.

What did she want from me?

"Is something wrong?"

Granted, it wasn't because she wasn't nice. On the contrary, she was somehow the friendliest one here out of the whole house. But the fact that she didn't smell like the other witches and that, according to Julian, something abnormal had happened to her yesterday caused me to distrust her. The daughter of a witch remained a witch to me.

Julian had wanted to tell me, but Father had spontaneously called the pack to an emergency meeting at the estate.

There, where I was sure my cell phone was still lying. Shit , man.

"Why is everyone so mean to you?"

Bay sat up straight, but immediately slumped back against the wall behind her.

Had she maybe just had too much to drink at the campus bar yesterday?

I'd seen her there with Mady, which didn't surprise me because Mady was like a burdock, and I'd been glad when my brother finally listened to our father and broke up with her. She had been friends with the witches, which had been a threat to our pack. But explain that to a human girl.

"Is it true about the drugs?"

I looked at Bayla again.

And I already had been wondering what kind of rubbish the witches were spreading about us. Even if heads would have to roll for the truth, the drug story was really a shitty way to go.

"Yeah," I said, cursing myself for that.

Bayla would stay away from us, and that was the most important thing.

"You're lying," she just replied, running her hand through her somewhat disheveled hair. She looked really bad.

"You don't look like someone who does drugs," she added, and only now did I realize that she actually hadn't bought the lie.

"You must know a lot about that, huh?" was all I said before I headed for the door. I should hurry before I might miss any important messages from Father.

"Wait," Bay said quickly.

Slightly annoyed, I stopped and turned to her.

"You don't deal drugs either."

Okay , I was done. Before she could ask me any more weird questions, I opened the door to the hallway.

"I don't think you'd be friends with a cop's son if you did."

Her words made me stop moving. Then I turned around and walked to her bed.

"Don't pretend you know anything about us, okay? I really don't feel like having any witches snooping around in my life!"

And again, I had responded too scratchily, because Bay looked at me with a confused expression.

"Witches?"

"Don't act so innocent," I sighed.

"I don't understand..."

Was she really going to play this game with me?

"Is the word witch some kind of insult in these backwoods here? Because somehow everyone throws that at everyone here."

And slowly, it started to sink in. What if she actually didn't know? Was that even possible?

"I can understand you having something against people spreading rumors about you. But please leave me out of it. I haven't done anything to you," she replied. Her look was insistent, and she actually seemed to mean it.

Either she didn't know, or she really wasn't one of them… The longer I thought about it, the less sense it made to me. Because she still smelled so different. And not at all like a witch.

But suddenly, something else stole my attention. Her eyes.

What on earth was happening to her eyes?

Turquoise, as well as blue, gave way to an intensely bright orange-yellow. It was damn beautiful, like a bright fire spreading inside her eye. Like the one that could trigger a transformation in us because it captivated us too deeply. Peaceful, calming... captivating . A warm feeling that reminded me of home gradually rose in my chest. Very slowly and... Wait ....

I probably wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't felt the signs of transformation on my own body. My eyes must have turned yellowish, and the veins were already sticking out wildly on my forearms.

I was still not sure about her species. It seemed that she really was one of them. But her eyes...and then I realized the resemblance to my own. No ...it couldn't be.

Bay herself was still leaning against the wall, staring at me as if she were absent-minded.

It was creepy as hell and I wanted to leave as quickly as possible when she suddenly started shaking, beads of sweat forming on her forehead. Her whole body seemed to be fighting something. Only what was it ?

She sank back into the pillows, but the trembling did not stop. On the contrary, it became stronger.

Panic shot through my veins. Helplessness threatened to overwhelm me. Something inside me literally commanded me to help her, and more and more confusion, coupled with discomfort, spread through me. I was completely overwhelmed with the situation, with the indecision of what to do now. Finally, I jumped over to her bed and shook her vigorously.

"Bayla, what's wrong? Do you need anything?"

What if she was suffering from a serious illness?

But instead of answering me, she squinted her still-bright eyes tightly as if she were feeling pain.

I winced as I brushed her skin. Christ , she was literally glowing !

Then, finally, it stopped, and her entire body relaxed. She slumped down until she was completely nodding off.

"Emely, what are you doing?!" I heard a voice behind me yell.

I didn't have to turn around to know who it was.

"Her eyes just started glowing.... Just like ours."

That was all I could get out of my mouth at that moment. I was still completely lost and had no idea what that had just been.

Did I want to know? No . Was it any of my business? If it was some weird witch thing, probably not .

We both, Julian and I, sat on my bed and stared at the sleeping girl.

Shit, man... What if she could have died? The witches probably would have torn me apart and Julian right along with me.

I swallowed hard.

"It was the same with me," Julian murmured thoughtfully.

I turned my gaze away from the witch and looked at him instead.

"What?" he asked, irritated.

"You sound like there's something else."

Julian was silent for too long, which didn't mean anything good. If he knew anything about them, he should tell me now .

"Can witches actually imitate the beginning stages of our transformation?" he finally asked.

"Now, what makes you think that?"

"Her arms..."

"What about her arms?"

"I thought I saw her veins bulge out for a brief moment... Just like ours."

What he said there made me suck in my breath sharply.

"Impossible. You must have been out of your mind," I returned.

Julian looked at me with annoyance. For a second, I even thought he was about to grin now, as he often did, but his expression darkened.

"What do you think of me?" he asked, looking at me hard.

I shrugged and looked back at Bayla. "I don't know. You've been through a lot."

I didn't regret my words one bit. He should be able to talk openly about his problems. Just like others did.

Unlike Julian, I had no one to really talk to.

I quickly dismissed that thought. The pack was there when I needed it. Kieran answered the phone when I called him.... I just hadn't been too keen on burdening others with my problems yet.

There were real problems , ones that were above our own and could become a danger to the pack. One of them lay before us, unconscious and probably still as hot as the hood of my Jeep at the height of summer.

Julian remained silent. He ignored my implication, thinking.

"If Ms. Adams finds out about this, I'm a dead man."

A dead man ? Okay, now I really had to laugh.

"You're not her lapdog , Julian," I teased him, amused.

"She's my neighbor, though. And you shouldn't mess with neighbors."

"When you interact with witches, that's exactly what happens."

And by now I could sing a song about that. Wherever witches appeared, the mood changed. Drastically .

"Why were you even here?"

I thought he wouldn't answer, but then he looked at me. As if something had occurred to him again.

"I don't know... There was this weird feeling..."

"A feeling?"

I raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

"Yeah... It was like something was calling me. Like something wasn't right here."

Which he was right about. Something was very wrong here.

"Maybe your sixth sense, Julian," I joked, though I didn't get such an enthusiastic response.

There was now a look of dissatisfaction in his eyes. But he left it at that.

I had always known that Julian's powers were stronger than those of the others within our rank in the pack, which was due to the fact that his mother had been a Senseque and not a human, as it was the case with the others in the pack, excluding me and Nash.

Already back then, Julian had always beaten Nash when the three of us had played in the backyard.

At one point I had been really worried that he had wanted to hurt Nash seriously... But that had never been the case. The two of them had once been inseparable and had watched each other's backs.

Alarik had explained to me that it was normal for male Senseque to get very involved in such little power games.

Of course, it was clear to me that every Alpha had to radiate a certain authority. But Nash was really overdoing the last couple of months.

"One thing you might want to know." I looked at Julian with attention. "She doesn't know she's a witch."

So, I'd been right.

"And her mother can't tell her?"

"She doesn't want to tell her."

I shook my head in confusion. "Witches are weird."

"You don't say," Julian added, looking back over at Bay.

"What's the wolf doing here!" it came from the door.

When one spoke of the devil.

I wheeled my head around in annoyance, confirming the assumption that this rabble had snuck up on me again, standing in the doorway now: the Blair cousins.

While the blonde kept herself in the background as usual, the pushy one with the dark curls stood in the doorway with her arms folded and eyed us both condescendingly. Grace again with her death stare.

A miracle that her cousin had dared to sleep ten feet away the last few nights. A miracle that I had done it. Because even if they could only control the four elements, they were unpredictable and dangerous.

"This is not only your room," I replied calmly because, by now, I was tired of having to defend myself over and over again. Day in and day out, I defended my existence on this campus with these freaks as if I had to. It was my family's territory, not theirs .

However, with my beta position in the pack, there was no point in going on the offensive anyway. I would wait until they officially made a misstep.

" He has no business here!" the aggressive Blair cousin hissed angrily.

"As a matter of fact, this whole house belongs to my family," I sighed, unimpressed, crossing my arms.

That had hit the spot. Her gaze seemed to slip out of joint very briefly until she regained her composure. I tried to look as aggressive as she did, though it seemed to work better for me. I let my eyes flash. Just a little. Grace's shy counterpart took a step back.

That was the reason I could close my eyes at night.

"Grace, stop provoking her," Julie whispered softly.

"I'll be off then..." Julian said in a curt voice, rising from my bed.

Typical of him. When things got serious, he'd back off.

The two girls backed away suspiciously as Julian walked past them as if they were air, and I had to stifle a grin.

"Maybe your family owns this place..." Grace looked back at me and made a circular motion with her finger. "But unfortunately, we have to live here to be able to study, too. Believe me, we never wanted anything to do with you guys."

"Holy shit, what's going on with you guys?"

Larissa appeared in the doorway, and we all immediately fell silent. But our hostile looks were worth a thousand words.

Shaking her head, she entered the room, her eyes fixed on her friend's bed.

"As if she's still asleep."

A strange feeling spread through the pit of my stomach. I couldn't let her find out about any of this.

Grace was looking at me so hatefully again. As if she suspected something.

I jumped up and hurried to get out of here.