Chapter 11

Zach lay in bed on Sunday night not able to sleep too excited and nervous for Monday morning. Too many thoughts raced through his head. Memories of the weekend spent with Lauren drifted like sailboats through his mind.

They had spent every waking moment together at the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park, sitting in the shade of the giant Monterey Pine, the one Hagiwara had rescued in the early 1900's, smelling the sweet smell of wisteria in the air, and watching the pixies playing in the trees.

Turns out only magical creatures can see them. They're pesky little creatures though, who like to pick at you to get a rise. Lauren assured him they just did it for fun, but he wasn't convinced. They went away in a flash happily enough though when Lauren gave them a slice of pizza that he had smuggled in.

Pixie are about the size of a hand – not his of course, or they may have made off with more than his pizza. If he had to describe them he'd say they kind of look like tinker bell, if she didn't know what a bathtub was or a hairbrush for that matter. He had to admit they were  kind of cute until they smiled. Then they were just plain creepy.

Pixies have big serrated teeth, and they only smile when they're truly happy, but when they do, let's put it this way,  it makes you want to keep them that way. Their clothes look like they are fashioned from left over litter that the park goers had left lying around. One of the little mites even had a plastic pop cap for a hat.

Luckily the weather had cooperated and both their Saturday and Sunday visit had been pleasant ones. Usually this late in October you could expect fog and drizzle to be your constant companion in the glorious city by the bay, but this weekend had surprised a lot of people judging by the turnout at the park.

It had been packed but Lauren used her patented anti-eavesdrop spell and they were free to talk about anything and EVERYTHING. Zach's head had filled near to bursting with the information she gave him.

He went over what types of magical creatures his classmates were, thinking he didn't want to put his foot in it again:

She'd told him at the park that Brenna's a shaman, Kelly's a Norse demigoddess, Xander's a Slavic demigod, Ryan's an Ifrit Jinni, Donnie's a Cait Sith, which just meant he can shift into a cat, Quinn, she'd explained, is a Navajo Skinwalker . . . but, she cautioned him, that he's touchy about it, so don't ask him what that means.

And finally that Rayden was a dragon shifter.

When he'd looked shocked she had just laughed.

They'd both laughed when she said that was why they had cowered in the corner and if he could remember the day Ray got his powers; then he would have cowered too.

She went on to tell him that no one knows what CJ is. The rumor is that not even the council knows. He just showed up at school, unannounced, half way through seventh grade.

"Nobody but halfbloods come to our school," she had explained. Then she leaned in conspiratorially to say, "The council low jacks us at birth and a magic lure is placed on us so that even if both our parents are non-magical we end up in San Fran no matter what."

Apparently CJ was not low jacked and there was no lure attached. Lauren had laughed when she told him, "He's a friggin mystery even to himself. He's always doing research to try and figure out what magical creature his is. He comes up with the craziest ideas sometimes. It effin hilarious!"

Zach had found it fascinating to find out that they don't celebrate all the same holidays that humans do, for example they observe the solstices: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall and the pagan holidays(which are really just Magic holidays).

She informed him that one was coming up at the end of the month on Nov 1st. It's called Samhain, but apparently pronounced {SAW ween} for some reason.

"The school's having a big party this year," she had told him excitedly. "They're even having foreign dignitaries come. Some sort of Royal Nordic Fae." Lauren was very excited about that.

"The other holidays are Imbolc Feb 1st, Beltane May 1st and Lughnasadh Aug 1st, In addition to that are the equinoxes and the solstices."

She explained that this year they all have to dress up in all natural clothing. She started describing her dress then, but he had kinda zoned out; until, she told him he'd have to wear leather or suede. He'd just groaned and wondered what it was with the school and making them look like weirdos.

Where the hell was he going to get leather pants large enough to fit someone who is nearly 6'6"? It would serve them right if he showed up in ass-less chaps.

When Lauren announced she was going to the Samhain Ball with Quinn, Zach didn't know what to think, but he knew he didn't like the feeling he got in the pit of his stomach at the news.

Lauren had looked guilty when she explained, "Sorry Zach I accepted his offer before you became Enlightened, I can tell him I'm going with you instead. I'm sure he'll understand."

Zach had played it cool and said," Nah that's okay, Lauren, I actually like the idea of going stag."

But that had turned out to be the complete wrong thing to say, because; she hadn't looked at him for a long time after that.

The confused teen was relieved when after what seemed like an eternity of awkward silence; Lauren pulled an atlas out of her bag and laid it out on the blanket in front of them. She muttered under her breath and waved her hand over the center spread of the globe and it became a three dimensional image above the page.

Zach was awestruck by the beauty of her magic.

All along the impressive miniature of the earth were criss-crossed vivid green lines. She reached out to his hand and placed his finger on one of the lines and said, "This is a Ley Line." She drew his finger around the globe until it met a cross section and said, "This is a Ley point," then she drew his finger around the globe again until it reached the shores of San Francicso Bay, "and this," she explained, "is a Ley hub. Do you see how many Ley Lines cross at the hub."

He had nodded in awe as she continued.

"San Francisco is an area of great power. There are other such areas throughout the world but none as powerful as our hub. Humans have speculated about the placement of ancient and historical locations like the pyramids and Stonehenge for centuries and you know what? For once they got it right. Those locations are hubs. Ley lines do connect our world. That's why the other schools like ours around the globe are located in these significant locations. Each continent has a school just like ours. Africa has one, Europe has one, and if we ever get to populating Antarctica I'm sure there'll be one there too. My point is these lines are very important to our kind. These lines are suffused with magic and we all draw our energy from it."

"When I made this map for you I muttered an incantation. That just means that I called the magic from the Ley Line to me and told it what to do. I willed it to become what I've created before you. When I teleport I tell the magic to create a doorway between two spaces so that when I open one door I can then open the other door to the location I want to go. It's like the doors in an adjoining room at a hotel both doors need to be open to allow entry. My point is we all use this magic in different ways. A vampire will use the magic automatically to keep the blood he takes from his hosts pumping through his veins so that he can remain animated even after death. I don't know how you will use the magic of the Ley Line, but you can be sure, as a magical creature that you will."

Lauren looked up from her creation to look him deep in his eyes and that was when he noticed that his hand was still cradled in hers. Zach had had to swallow hard because in that moment all he wanted to do was draw the magic of the Ley Line to him and will it to make her kiss him. He licked his lips nervously as she began to lean in, and suddenly his heart was a race horse in his chest. Its hooves thundered in his ribcage.

The sun shone brightly through the tree above. As the ancient tree swayed in the calm autumnal breeze the play of shadow and light danced across Lauren's chocolate brown skin. Her hazel eyes sparkled in the sun and the smile that spread across her perfectly white teeth was warm and inviting. Zach was spellbound by her beauty; and he didn't know if it was faery magic or a glamour, and frankly he didn't care, it was all Lauren.

Just as he reached out to cup her jaw and bring her the rest of the way in the pixie with a bottle cap for a hat came back looking for another slice, but this time he brought friends and plenty of them. Half of them landed on his head and were pulling his hair and ears mercilessly trying to exact another slice.

When he yowled and looked to Lauren for help she was too busy laughing so hard she couldn't breathe and the spell as they say was broken.

Zach rolled over on his bed and punched his pillow in frustration.

Why oh why had he said that he was okay going to the Samhain Ball stag?

It took Zach a while to fall asleep after that, but when he finally did; he dreamt of magic: beautiful and sweet, and a damn Skinwalker who didn't know how to appreciate it.

This chapter is dedicated to @Kaminka26  and @BrettHicks

Thanks for talking me off the ledge when Wattpad lost my story. Huggles

********************THANKS FOR READING***************

If you liked this chapter Vote, Comment, add, this book to your reading list, or suggest it to a friend. Thank you all for helping me reach my goal of 1000 reads by the end of the month. I have another goal of 2,000 reads and 500 votes by the one month anniversary on the 7th of July. Just two more days. And for the love of Pete will someone please read Haven High Back Story and Characters; it's stuck at 666 and it is creeping me the F-out. LOL

Stay tuned, because you're going to want to read more; Zach's finally going to be introduced to the magic wing in the next chapter. What do you think it's going to be like?

A/N still looking for a name for a magic shop run by witches. Something like MissSpelled ? And Go . . .

Best suggestion gets a virtual hug.

I want to start recommend great books that I've found that haven't got a lot of reads yet and truly deserve it. So here it goes:

Blood & Magic by CarolineAndrus

CrimsonHood by DA0088

Dawn by BrandiFortier

Jump to the Sky by PetePeteParker

Blame it on the Coffee by _Deadly_Poison_

Dead or Alive by ObsidianWars

Going Stray by BrettHicks

If I missed you that just means I'll mention you next week don't feel left out.