"Nothing," Paul answered.
He tilted his head to examine my expression.
"What do you mean? I know what you are."
"You've known what we are for a long time, I suspect," Paul chuckled dryly, "But none of the humans seem any the wiser."
"Of course not," I snapped, wrinkling my nose.
"I want to know what you are."
Paul closed his eyes as our indignant audience, Anne in particular, became vocal. I snapped my jaws together so suddenly that the clash of my teeth resonated in the room.
"I assumed as much," Paul sighed, reopening his eyes and lowering his hands, "I imagine that she can't trust us with that information."
"Why not?" Leo piped up, a resentful curiosity in his tone, "She knows about us."
"Fear of the Theous," Paul surmised, examining the picture hung up on the wall, "Indicates to me that she's of one of the races they sought to eradicate."
"Races?"
"Eradicate?"
Paul's eyes turned back to me. They were even, knowing, yet with a small glimmer of curiosity. I chewed my tongue then glanced at Mason. Thankfully, his expression was openly-perplexed as he stared at his father. Good.
"For vampires you lot are very oblivious," I decidedly huffed, sitting back with a scowl, "Do you really think you're the only supernatural species to roam the earth?"
They quieted at this, eyes darting between Paul and me.
"Vampires may be a dime a dozen in the supernatural world, but so are ghosts. You've at least encountered those, right?"
"I think so," Kira chimed thoughtfully.
I clicked my tongue, annoyed.
"What are you then?"
"Can't say. The less you know, the safer I am."
"We aren't friendly with the Theous," Paul assured, eyebrows arched in guilt as he stared once more at the painting, "When I was turned, there was no elder vampire to guide me. No one to look to. All I had was my moral compass and a determination not to kill humans.
"When I encountered the Theous, they were the first of my kind to give me any answers as to what I had become. I stayed with them for half a decade, learning what I could about the supernatural world while tolerating their... " he winced "... feeding habits."
He turned at the audible sound of my grinding teeth, lowering his chin in shame, "They were ancient and I was new. Not to mention a guest."
"You no longer have contact with them?"
"I don't."
"And the rest?"
My eyes swept those gathered.
"Only I have met the Theous. None of my family have been introduced to them."
"And they won't be," I insisted, glaring at each in turn, "The fact that they let you live the way you do means that you either had knowledge they wanted or they fancied you as a curiosity. They don't like anything, idea or challenge, that questions their right "- I spat the word "- to feed on humans as they please. If they knew you had developed a coven this size that follows your beliefs, I doubt that they would feel as tolerant of you as you were of them."
"Precisely the reason for our distance," Paul agreed.
"The peanut gallery can disperse," I growled.
Mason immediately reached out an arm to steady me at the shoulder as I wobbled. I caught myself by bracing my hands on my thighs. When I looked up again, all those that were in the doorway had disappeared.
"What would you like to do?" he whispered.
I put a hand to my forehead.
"Drink a glass of water."
Mason nodded, then tentatively, offered his arm to me. With a hair of hesitation, I considered, then propped myself upon him. He quickly brought me into the spacious kitchen and set me at the breakfast table that looked out into the backyard.
"Your teeth and nails," Paul started as Mason helped me into a chair, "Will they return to normal?"
"Once I calm down further."
"Is that... a werewolf thing?" Mason asked tentatively.
He examined the hand I'd draped over the armrest from where he sat on the edge of the seat beside me.
"I'm not saying."
He continued staring, curiosity interrupting the oddly sad demeanor that had overtaken him. With a sigh, I offered him my hand. Startled, he took it like he was handed a china teacup and gazed questioningly at me. Claire set a glass of water on the table in front of me.
"I don't mind you looking."
His green eyes resolved a bit, eyebrows relaxing at my concession. With both hands, he turned over my upturned hand to examine my curved claws, running the tips of his fingers over them and testing their sharpness on the pads.
"Don't break skin."
"I wouldn't dream of it," he answered automatically, voice reverent.
"It would be just as bad for you as for me," I clarified, "I'm poisonous."
"Poison blood?" Leo's voice called distantly, "Sweet!"
"Like I'd let him cause you to bleed all over my shirt," Anne's growl wafted down the stairs.
I clicked my tongue in irritation.
Leo and Anne entered the room, taking up seats at the dining table followed shortly by both Kira and Samuel. Paul and Claire stood in the kitchen proper, arranged unnaturally as if neither had ever truly used it before. As such, they were simply propped against the counters.
"And the gallery returns," I grumbled, rolling my eyes and taking a sip of water.
"Question," Samuel posited.
He sat so formally in his chair that his back could've been a plank of wood.
"I may not answer."
"Did you know I was home?"
"Yes."
"Another question," Kira piped up this time, "Why don't our abilities work on you?"
I took a sip of water and watched Mason's gentle progress over my now upturned hand. He'd begun tracing the palmar lines with the soft curve of his fingertip, as if trying to quickly memorize the pattern. There wasn't anything abnormal there to memorize.
"Why come to Homer?" Claire wondered.
"By chance," I shrugged, "Thought it would be safe."
"Why didn't you leave when you encountered us?" Mason breathed, finally looking up from his ministrations to ask.
I cautiously examined the confusion and intrigue in his eyes.
"I was curious."
A little smile twitched on his lips at this before he returned to his examination. Under his watchful gaze, I continued to force relaxation upon myself. The claws began to retract.
"That's gnarly," Leo whistled, watching them slip underneath my skin.
"You drink blood."
"Yeah but my fingers don't retract into themselves."
"Your teeth do."
"Yeah, fair point."
"Your teeth are like ours," Mason noted, his hands still cradling mine as his gaze swept up to my face. I obliged him, parting my lips just a bit so he could see my canines; they had retracted back such that they appeared more human-sized. "They push out and forward when you're..."
He frowned.
"Ours only do that when we're ready to feed," Paul noted.
"Or if we're aggressive," Samuel added with a nod to me, "That's why hers are out."
I cocked my head leadingly, "You have experience with vampiric aggression?"
His lips became a fine line as we stared challengingly at each other. I conceded, looking back to Mason.
"Uh..." Leo started, leaning back in his chair and rubbing the back of his head with chagrin, "So given this new information... I realize that I may have said some really insensitive things to you a while back."
"I remember you apologizing," I said stiffly.
"I did, but I didn't really know what I was actually apologizing for," he said, his voice growing husky with guilt, "To hear your late mother and brother talked about so carelessly by a vampire must've sucked. Especially since it seems likely that they were killed by one of our kind..."
The hand I held in Mason's closed into a fist.
"It did suck."
My staring contest with the floor was becoming difficult, blurry. Mason's hands enveloped my fist, squeezing tightly as my throat began to grow thick.
"Despite what our kind must've done to you and yours," Claire soothed, "You still were and are extraordinarily patient with us."
I pursed my lips, sniffling, refusing to look up as the tears began to fall. I felt my lower lip start to quiver too.
"What can I do to make it up to you?" Leo asked.
He leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table, interlacing his fingers. When I managed to spare an embarrassed glance, I noticed the somber, determined set of his face.
"For my part, I have been rather unkind to you all at times. I'm not as patient or understanding as you seem to have perceived."
"Anyone in your position would've either run or killed us on-sight."
I couldn't dispute that. While many of my family may have taken the study route, as I had, there would be just as many - if not more - who would have voted to exterminate the Warde coven without consideration.
"You all are different."
"I was still wrong toward you," Leo pressed, "I want to make up for it."
"I bullied Mason," I pointed out, between sniffles.
"Hardly," Mason scoffed.
I spared a red-eyed glance his way.
"I'm still sorry that I was trying to be mean."
"You've more than made up for it," he whispered, squeezing my now-relaxed fist.
"C'mon," Leo beckoned with one of his hands, "Let me have it. What do I gotta do to set it right?"
"Uh..." I nibbled on my lower lip in thought, then took a deep breath and straightened. With my fingertips, I smeared away the tear tracks and met Leo's eyes. "I get one good punch on you."
He raised his eyebrows, nodding skeptically, "You sure you won't hurt yourself?"
"I'm sure."
"Alright then," he stood, gesturing for me to come around the table.
"We should do it outside."
"Oh-ho!" He slapped his hands together and rubbed them excitedly, "Now this is getting interesting."
"Can the peanut gallery come?" Kira asked brightly.
I sighed, "Why not?"
"Yay!" she squeaked, hopping up out of her seat.
I set a hand on my chest on the cutout, mimicking the grounding motion of feeling my own breaths as they rushed in. My fingertips probed into the top. Subtly, I wordlessly imbued the necessary spell:
[Robervelox]
Speed and strength momentarily shook my limbs with energy anew. For the time being, I would use nonverbal incantations. Until I was absolutely certain of them, I would stick to what I'd said: the less they knew about me, the better. I braced myself again, sweeping my hair behind an ear surreptitiously.
[Augeo Sensus]
The torrent of scent and sound crashed over me, but I rode it out until I'd fully adjusted. Half our group was outside, filtering through the sliding kitchen door onto the back porch and further into the grassy backyard.
"I don't think you should do this," Mason fretted, still holding tightly to my off-hand.
"I'll be fine - "
"It's just not safe."
"It's one punch. And I'm sturdier than I look; my skin won't break."
His eyes were tight as he examined my face, hands still possessively gripping mine. Then he broke and sighed with frustration.
"Fine."
I stepped out into the grass, the glyph making me feel more lithe and graceful than usual. The inconvenience of mushy ground hardly bothered me as I made my way. I passed the three already out: Anne with her arms crossed, Samuel in a loose parade-rest, and Kira who bounced mildly on the balls of her feet. Mason stopped with them as I continued out to where Leo stood.
"I expect my children to play fair," Claire called as she trotted down from the porch with Paul close behind, "And the rules are to give it all you've got, Sara."
"Understood," I murmured, sniffling the last of the sadness away before I squared up to Leo.
He braced in a split stance, slightly crouched, and smacked the side of his cheek in preparation for the hit. I scoffed.
"What?"
"I'm not punching your face."
"Fair's fair."
I rocked back onto my following foot, then forward onto the leading one to get low. I flexed the fingers of my right hand then sealed them into a hard fist.
"My strength isn't such that I can decapitate you entirely but I don't really want to run the risk. I'll go for your chest."
"Decapitate me?!"
"Prepare yourself! Threetwoone-go!"
Strength rushed into my leading thigh and calf in less than a second. In the next blink, wind whipped my hair back from my face and appeared right before Leo. His blue-eyed shock was electric. I landed the punch square in the middle of his sternum. There was a sharp snap!
And then he flew to the edge of the clearing, arms and legs limp like noodles. He rag-dolled across the ground once before hitting the forest. The crackling splinter of breaking timber slowed as he came to a rest somewhere among the trees.
"Cazzo!" I hissed, moving to run in, but Leo's booming laughter rose up from the scattered branches.
"Damn that was a good one!"
"Have you been impaled?" I called anxiously.
"A little, but nowhere important. It's mainly softwood species anyhow."
I sighed with relief, "Sorry, that was more forceful than I meant..."
He limped out, a human porcupine. Wincing, he pulled out a few shards from his legs and arms as he made his way back to us at a contented stroll. Anne quickly fell into step beside him, appearing like she'd teleported to the spot.
"So," he said, suddenly serious as he closed the distance. His expression was quickly severe and I took a nervous step back. "You really were holding back while playing dodgeball with me."
"Huh?"
"Dodgeball. In gym!"
"Of course I was," I put my hands on my hips, recollecting myself, "It would be stupid to let the humans see."
"Unforgivable."
"Whatever. Let's get the splinters out of your back."
"On it," Anne said, already at Leo's back, "You're going to change, babe. Can't have you wearing clothes like this."
"They've been messed up for all of five seconds!"
He huffed, but disappeared from the spot the moment she tossed the wood-shards to the ground.
Anne affixed me with a hard stare, "That won't happen again."
"I'm not used to holding back," I admitted, smoothing my hair self-consciously, "And it probably only worked so well because I surprised him-"
A smear of red caught my attention at the last moment and I flashed out a hand to catch it before it made contact with my shoulder. I gripped the rubber, squishy surface tightly with my fingertips and brought it in to inspect it. A dodge-ball?
I looked up, meeting Leo's excited gaze as he stood on the porch - already freshly attired - with four more balls under his arms. Now that it had been made known that I was well-aware of what they were, Leo seemed excited to drop some of the slow human pretenses.
"Won't these break easily?" I asked, passing the ball from one hand to the other.
"You're still going to hold back," Mason finally spoke up, voice hard, but he stared challengingly at Leo, "Breaking a ball is grounds for disqualification."
"An exercise in restraint," I decided, lifting the ball to my fingertip and setting it on a spin, "If we're going to do this, one-on-one won't be fun. I will claim the ladies."
Anne who'd been observing coolly until now, let a wide, hungry grin break across her face.
"Yes!" Kira chirped, flouncing across the grass to stand beside me.
"We don't play catch rules," Leo instructed, walking toward the centerline of the backyard to set down the balls. I tossed him the last. "Any one of us are capable of catching anything, so it ain't fun to get someone out that way. You gotta outwit and land a hit. We do three hits and you're out so the games last longer than three seconds. Also! The midline is more of a gray-area than a solid line. It makes things more interesting."
Mason, Samuel, and Paul lined up opposite us. The boulders at the edge of the clearing were their backdrop. That could come in handy; instead of running out to collect the stray balls from the woods they could bounce back. I spared a surreptitious glance behind the ladies' side and found no such natural feature. We'd be running back and forth if we didn't catch them.
Already, the menfolks' body-language was telling. Mason angled toward Leo and Samuel toward Mason. It wasn't a hierarchy of intelligence, per se, though I didn't doubt the instincts Leo had. Rather, he was the most impulsive on his instinct. Mason knew to back him and Samuel knew to follow the mind-reader. And Paul... stood casually with his hands in his pockets. Whether I should be threatened by that or not was beyond me.
"Alright, any questions?" Leo asked.
I frowned, inspecting Samuel where he stood unconcernedly surveying the competition. He smiled once at Kira who bopped with excitement on my left.
"Are your abilities allowed?" I asked, raptly watching Samuel's expression.
"Of course," Kira said, hopping from foot to foot, "Mason and I can't turn ours off. So it's only fair."
Samuel smirked and narrowed his eyes at his mate. I turned my gaze to her too. She slowed a bit, her little smiling mouth becoming a pursed, thin line. It wasn't pain that I saw there, but maybe disappointment? Distraction?
Empathetic manipulation, perhaps. It could explain why she'd asked him to 'do something' while I was panicking. Now, Kira's ability, on the other hand...?
"Let's begin after three!" Leo boomed, holding up three fingers, "One..."
I crouched with the other Warde-women.
"Two...!"
I set my sight on Mason, feeling a pull of excitement in my belly. He crouched, fingers pressed lightly to the ground and he met my gaze with a tentative, lopsided grin.
"Three...!"
I watched as he lifted his eyebrows in mock-challenge and I nibbled on my lower lip with anticipation. I leaned into my forward foot.
"Go!"
I bluffed. With a deep score into the ground, I jerked forward, but remained resolutely in-place. As predicted, both Anne and Kira darted forward: Anne's ambition unbridled and Kira's excitement untamed in spite of Samuel's efforts. Kira grabbed a single ball as Anne snatched two. The blonde immediately cocked back two consecutive throws, aiming for Leo, Samuel, and Paul who'd dashed forward from the opposite.
Mason's lips parted, his head cocking with curiosity.
"No need to be hesitant," Claire soothed from my right.
"Not hesitant," I corrected, watching raptly as the fight unfolded, "Getting a feel for the tactics."
Claire glanced my way, lips parted in surprise, but was forced to flash her hands down in defense as a red smear rocketed her way. She caught expertly before the ball collided with her knee.
"Here," she murmured, handing me ammunition.
"Thanks."
Leo twisted away from Anne's attacks, easily dodging, yet didn't return in kind. Mason and Samuel had easily caught the two projectiles and all three of their bodies angled at once toward their true intended target.
Immediately, I darted out in a blur of motion. Making sure to keep tabs on Paul who'd darted back to the fringe of the field to collect Kira's ammunition. Taking advantage of the gray middle-area, I curved around, watching eagerly for the opening as all three aimed for Kira. Samuel was the first to notice me. I changed targets, aiming solidly for Leo's foot.
"Hey-!"
Samuel's warning rang out as the ball connected and spun out into the ladies half of the field. It was quickly picked up by Anne. Kira was dancing between the two dodgeballs thrown her way, arms extended like a ballet dancer as she moved into the exact, narrow space that neither ball would cross.
Whatever Kira's ability was, she was a threat to them.
"Nice one, Luzio!" Leo growled.
Suddenly he was before me, looming over with an arm outstretched over my head for ammunition from Paul. I spun one-eighty on the spot and hopped into the air chest-first to interrupt the pass from father to son. The ball made contact with the little window-cutout, bopping high into the air. It became a speck against the clouds. Twisting halfway back, I glared up at my opponent.
"Anne!" I yelled in Leo's face, forcing him to glance about.
Whether or not my teammate was able to take the opportunity was irrelevant; yelling had already created an opening. She was ambitious, however, and I heard a fleshy strike. Leo cursed and turned. Now, I'd need to catch that ball as it came down or I'd have a point against me.
A swish of air and the rustling of my own hair against my shoulders alerted me to someone at my back. I flared my nostrils, noting Mason's scent. My heartbeat began to race. The fan of his cool breath made the hair on the crown of my head flutter.
Uh-oh.
"Sara~"
Kira's sing-song voice caught my attention. She was running at me, ball in hand, not even pausing to haphazardly toss it backward toward Claire.
Immediately I sidestepped Mason as he aimed to bar my catch and threaded my fingers for her. The moment she jumped straight at the pair of us with an outstretched foot, I intercepted, quickly catching her weight and launching her directly upward. She caught the would-be first point against me.
"Samuel-!"
Mason was too late. From her position on-high, Kira rained down her meteor-speed attack to catch Samuel squarely on the crown of his head. She alighted on the ground in front of me, drawing all attention toward the pair of us ladies in the gray-zone. Claire made an opportunistic throw, but Leo caught it.
Kira snatched my wrist and lazily tossed me back to team-ground before I could analyze Leo's aim of attack. Swinging an arm to gain control, I managed a smooth landing onto my feet. Kira darted after me, but Mason flitted between her and our team, effectively caging her. An expert throw from Leo smacked her shoulder.
"Sara," Claire called.
I turned slightly, just enough to collect the ball she'd thrown me. With Mason's focus on Kira, I hit him squarely in the back of the knee. I smiled widely. A ball knocked my empty, outstretched throwing-arm across my body and I looked to see Samuel grin triumphantly. I blinked. Anne was suddenly at my side.
"With me," she instructed.
Her perfectly manicured fingers pressed another ball into my hands. I followed her gaze: Paul cornered Claire with a one-man barrage.
I spared a half-second glance Mason's way, but Kira had gone on the offensive, managing to cage both Mason and Leo just as Mason had been doing to her earlier. Samuel, however, was quickly realizing our intent.
"Mm," I synced my movement, keeping my arm and thigh in brushing-contact with hers. We slipped into the gray area in a half-second. Right within point-blank range of Paul.
She went high and I low. Both hit; one in the chest and the other in the calf.
"I'm out!"
He raised his arm and walked to the porch. The whistle of an incoming projectile bristled alive tension across my shoulders.
"Anne, your back!"
"Catch it," she ordered, swaying her hip to bop it upward.
"On it - "
Two more balls whizzed out of nowhere, another catching Anne squarely in the shoulder while the other hit the ball I'd been instructed to collect. It spiraled across the yard, away from my grasping fingers.
"Shoot!" she hissed, baring her teeth.
Kira had returned, taking up the defensive once more.
"Ladies!" Claire called.
She distributed ammunition, keeping one for herself. Mason held the last, squeezing it possessively as he surveyed our lineup. The remaining men stepped back, flanking close to Mason.
"Kira and I will choose," I instructed.
All three pairs of opposing eyes zeroed in on me.
"Don't let me down," Anne growled.
"Where's everyone at with their points?" Leo asked, tilting his head.
Mason smirked.
"Nice try," I crooned, leaning forward into a ready-stance. Anne mirrored me. Claire, quick on the uptake, flanked Kira. "Samuel and Mason once. Leo twice."
"Claire and Anne twice," Mason reported smoothly, cockily as he tapped his forehead, "Kira once."
"Sara once," Samuel tattled.
I squinted at him and stuck out my tongue. He shrugged stiffly in mock-apology.
Anne tensed, her body language gunning for Leo, but I gave her a chastising nudge. She glared, but settled down. Kira's mysterious ability would give her an edge... however it worked. From the corner of my eye, I watched her closely, then ranged my eyes over the gathered opponents in the sudden stillness. The calm before the break.
And then I moved. Anne kept perfect stride with me, immediately picking up on my target and timing her throw with mine. I sensed her feign, but didn't pay it mind, keeping my attention focused on the ball in my hand until the moment it left my fingertips. Samuel's surprise burst across his face just moments before Kira's ball smacked him squarely in the nose, Claire's hit in his gut, and mine bounced off his calf.
Mason caught mine's ricochet, but it made no difference.
Anne's ball, aimed for Leo, fell right into his hands for an immediate return-throw. The ball bounced off her foot and spiraled wildly toward the porch to be caught by Paul.
Mason clicked his tongue, shaking his head, "You had the advantage and yet you lost two players..."
Claire trailed after Anne, having been tagged by Mason after our rush.
"We still have the advantage," I noted smugly.
"Yes, last we checked in," Kira taunted as I caught the ball from Paul, "You two have three points against you while Sara and I have only two to share."
"And now it's two abled against one."
"Abled?"
"Effectively. But I think Samuel was going easy on us, earlier too."
"Oh?" Samuel piped up from the sidelines.
"It seemed to me that you were using your empathetic control only for your teammates benefit and very rarely to your opponents detriment," I noted, ambling toward Kira, "I don't think I saw Anne's hunger for victory dim even once."
"Wait, how do you know Samuel's gift?" Leo asked, straightening out of his battle-stance.
He'd collected two dodgeballs for himself, one for each fist.
"It's not difficult to tell," I said simply, twitching forward in a feint that startled him back into a ready-position. "Empaths are common, relatively speaking."
I smirked at Mason as I rounded Kira to her right, "You're a little rarer, mind-reader, but I had you pegged from the second time we spoke."
Mason's eyes widened and a deep, rosy blush blossomed up slowly beneath his freckles. I paused, my jaw going a little slack at the sight. A mirroring blush flooded into my cheeks.
Kira elbowed me. Recollecting myself, I stopped close to her such that our calves brushed. I tensed experimentally and she responded in kind, though her face retained an unchanged spritely-grin.
"And me?" she asked innocently.
"I need a little more time on that. It's a passive, external ability. I can't tell if it's drawing or affecting, although I'm leaning toward drawing."
"A classification system?" Mason wondered.
His usually low, sure voice raised with a mild-excitement. I tensed again and Kira was with me. We launched forward in synchronization.
My ball hit Leo squarely in the arm, throwing one of his two shots off-course. But the other hit me square in the chest and bounced to Kira, smacking her shoulder as Mason's throw hit her in the thigh. Her own aim was true, nailing Mason's foot, but both Leo and Kira went to the porch.
With a few long-hops backward, I got myself to the edge of the field and swiped up two balls.
"As I was saying," I murmured, pacing back into the center of my team's side as Mason collected his own ammunition and opposed me, "Passive or active refers to whether it's always-on or whether it needs to be consciously used. External or internal refers to whether it's for use on yourself or use on others. Drawing or affecting is whether you gain an effect or push one.
"For example, Samuel's empath-ability is active, external, and affecting. Your mind-reading appears to be passive, external, and drawing."
"You speak of it like it's a common system."
I tilted my head, ignoring the unspoken question.
"If we were to treat my ability the same as yours," I mused, "It is passive, internal, and affecting."
"Affecting makes it seem as if you actively interfere with others," he pointed out, shifting his weight. I shadowed the movement and he froze. "Since you're simply hiding yourself, isn't it drawing? You gain anonymity and privacy."
"The specific protection that prevents you from reading me is an interfering ability by nature. It's meant to give me an offensive edge rather than hide me from the world.
"The key difference between drawing and affecting is the mode of information gathering: a drawing ability directly gives you information while an affecting ability requires you to make inferences and use your power wisely. I'm sure Samuel can attest."
"I see," Mason mused, a crooked smile on his face. His emerald eyes brightened with intrigue, on-alert, but glittering with appreciation. "You are..."
He sorted through the words on his mind, hesitating. When he finally tilted his head, the messy copper hair fell into his eyes a bit and my heart skipped a beat.
"I was worried over nothing, after all."
All tension melted from his face as that crooked grin broke across his cheeks again. Heat rose into my face as I blinked, confused. Lower lip between my front teeth, I braced my legs for another run. Mason noticed and tensed, pulling one arm back at the ready. And I launched.
Wind swept my hair back, whipping over my parted lips and pulling my skirt into a tailwind. His first throw I deflected with one of the balls in-hand. He pulled back the other, but I closed the distance quickly. Confusion washed over his expression as I came within a few meters of him, sweeping my arms around in a wide arc at shoulder-level and throwing both at a narrow angle. They whizzed past him on either side of his head, tousling his glinting copper hair.
Upon release, I relaxed one of my hands, reaching up to cup his jaw as the other looped over his back. His lips parted as I drew within centimeters of them and I could smell the crisp scent of his breath as it fanned across my face. A soft thud resounded as the ball fell from his fingers. At first, his green eyes were wide, but as I started to collapse my body against him, the expression softened and resolved.
Then, I heard the return of my ammunition, having bounced against the back rocks. A devilish smile wormed its way across my face.
Mason blinked.
I snatched one of the balls and knocked away the second. Then, lightly, I bopped him on the side of the head with it.
"Out," I breathed over his lips as he stared down at me in awe.
"Oh come on brother-mine," Leo yelled and I disengaged, stepping backward a bit to take in Mason's surprise better, "Seduction is the oldest trick in the book!"
"It works on you every time," Anne countered smugly.
Mason sighed, running a chagrined hand through his messy hair.
"I want a rematch!" Leo demanded.
I pursed my lips, but I didn't have to say a single thing: my stomach let out a deep, longing grumble.
"How about I take you out for lunch?" Mason proposed.
The dreamy half-smile stuck to his lips.
"That sounds good to me," I agreed, reaching out.
Suddenly, the backyard brightened. Light broke through the clouds and blazed over the grass for a moment, making the green vibrant and warm. A burning smoke-scent shot through the air and when I next blinked, Mason was gone.
Panic bolted through my body and my teeth snapped together. Beams of sunlight raked the clearing where he'd once stood and when I looked to the porch, I noticed that all the Wardes had disappeared. Light gleamed off the windows, glaring into my eyes. Heartbeat quick and frantic, I looked about.
Lazy grasses and shrubs wafted in the light breeze, but no ash littered the ground. I let out a shaky sigh and steadied my breathing with a hand to my chest. Now that I focused, I turned my attention to the house, noting the shuffling and cursing from a few select individuals inside.
"I'll head to the front," I said, "So you don't have to open the door to the sun on this side."
"Thank you, dear," the apologetic voice was Claire's.
Mason greeted me at the front door, quick to take me into his arms. Surprised, I tried to examine his face, but he held me cautiously for a moment longer.
"Sorry to make you worry," he explained into my hair, then finally relinquished me.
"The sun will only be out for fifteen minutes," Kira said brightly, "Then you can head to lunch."
I furrowed my brows at her.
"Premonition," she tapped her temple, "For people it's only the futures of those I've met before. The more I know them the farther into their future I can see. For my family, it's about a month in advance. Oh, and only so long as there's more than a fifty-percent chance of it happening; I can't see coin-tosses."
My jaw dropped, "What?"
"Foresight. Telling the future."
"I've never heard of that one before," I gasped, staring at the ceiling as I flipped through my mental repertoire, "Not in a vampire, at least. The closest I've seen is 'danger sense'."
"Really?!"
I shook my head.
She wrinkled her nose mischievously,
"Now, get yourself prepped for your date; you'll love it!"