Bound by Spells (Bound Series Book 2)
Read Bound by Spells (Bound Series Book 2) Online
Authors: Stormy Smith
Tags: #New Adult and College, #Fantasy, #Romance, #Coming of Age, #Teen and Young Adult, #Paranormal, #Witches and Shapeshifters, #Bound by Duty, #Bound by Spells, #The Bound Series, #Stormy Smith, #Magic, #Suspense
Bound by Spells
Book two in the Bound Series
By Stormy Smith
Copyright ©2015 by Perfect Storm Publishing, LLC
All rights reserved worldwide.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover design by Zach Higginson of Caedus Designs
Editing by Monica Black of Word Nerd Editing
Formatted by Allyson Gottlieb of Athena Interior Book Design
For more information about this book and the author, visit
www.stormysmith.com
To my parents, for telling the world their baby wrote a book,
and always believing I could do anything.
Chapter 1
I woke up naked—again. The dry leaves and small twigs crunched and snapped as I lifted my head and looked around the dark forest floor. Exhaling in an exasperated huff, I dropped my head back to the dirt. I had been running for hours. She walked away, got in Micah’s SUV, and didn’t look back. So, I ran. It wasn’t the first time I had shifted without seeing it coming, but the change erupted from me like a volcano. It was violent and painful. Bones broke and reshaped in seconds, muscles stretched, tore, and reknit before I could let out the scream of agony that came out as a howl. I couldn’t pinpoint the moment it happened. I lost myself in the change and no longer had human thoughts. The last memory I had was her stick-straight back and methodical paces toward the car as she whispered goodbye. She didn’t want to, but she left me anyway.
I closed my eyes as the weight of the truth pulled me deeper into the damp ground. She didn’t even look back. Thinking about the pain she’d caused brought the animal inside of me out again. I heard the howl echo in my head, but I didn’t want to shift again so soon. I slowly inhaled, letting my breath fill my lungs, expand my ribs, and push into my back. The air released through my mouth and nose as I tried to calm the fire pulsing in my mind. The sensations always started at my core. A deep thrum vibrating every cell in my body, making me look down at my skin to ensure nothing was bursting through as my insides popped and shoved against each other. Even now, hours later, when I had no idea where she was or what she was doing, Amelia filled my head and the vision of her violet eyes was like pouring salt on the open wound she left in my heart.
She made a choice. Now you make a choice,
I scolded myself, frustrated with the emotion I didn’t want or need, and the vulnerability only she made me feel. I shoved up from the ground, brushing myself off as I tried to come to terms with being completely naked. No one had been around to explain what had been happening to me these last few months and I had hoped not to wake up miles from my car, my clothes ripped to shreds. But it had happened before, so at least today wasn’t a shock, just a nuisance.
I turned in a circle, unsure of which way to go. Then, something in my head clicked and I knew exactly where my car was. I still had no idea where all of the subtle instincts and knowledge came from, but I couldn’t complain about getting lost ever again. It was the middle of the night and odds were, I wouldn’t run into anyone, but just to be safe, I stayed back from the tree line and tried to keep my thoughts calm. Calm meant my eyes stayed their normal gray and not the blue glowing orbs that stared back at me in the mirror when this
thing
took over. After my first shift, my eyes stayed electric blue for a week. Every time I’d look in the mirror, I felt like a freak. I couldn’t leave the house without sunglasses. I stopped going to class. I could feel and sense so much more. It was overwhelming and exhausting.
As I moved quickly and quietly through the trees, I remembered what it was like just months ago when I would have left a trail for anyone to follow. Now, my feet barely moved the foliage and even the best trackers would have problems knowing where I’d been. The frustration was I
wanted
to be found. The heaviness of solitude was a yoke around my neck, weighing down my body and mind. My parents had been dead for so long, I had only the memory of the emotion I felt when remembering them. It was a fleeting ache of knowing I had once been loved and wanted. Since then, I had bounced from foster home to foster home, only to constantly be told I wasn’t a fit for my current family.
Then, I found Amelia. Through our first month of class, I sat back and observed the quiet girl who moved with the same weighted motions I did. She understood loneliness. It was clear in the way she would brighten at an instructor’s question, but dim as she refused to allow herself to answer. The way she moved with awkward grace, always bumping into things, but never people. I had overheard her and Bethany talking, and I knew she would be at that party. It was why I’d gone. But I felt like a creeper. I had been hiding out, berating myself for being there, when she came flying down the stairs.
I watched Amelia leap from the bottom stair of the deck like she could fly
—
all of the awkwardness gone and her movements fluid and beautiful. She pushed her way into the oncoming tide. She was lit up in the moonlight as her head dropped back and from my angle, I could see her smile. I was an intruder on the moment, but her smile broke something open inside of me. She was content and I was jealous. I wanted to know her secrets. I wanted to know how she found that place. She was my beginning and my end. Because now that she’s gone, I’m some kind of magical freak and I’m alone—again.
Dawn
was breaking through the trees as I finally got to my car. It was parked right where Micah had told me to put it. It was hard to reconcile the fact that just hours ago I had been kissing Amelia in these very same trees. As I dug in the trunk for my workout bag and spare clothes, my anger rose again. The realization of Micah being some kind of prince, engaged to my girl, had me yanking on my mesh shorts and t-shirt with violent motions. As my shirt came over my head and I pulled the hem down, I both felt and heard the rip of fabric. Looking down, I jumped. My right hand had partially shifted into a paw with claws that shouldn’t be there poking through the blue weave.
I untangled myself and sat on the bumper of my old Honda, breathing and staring until the fur melted away to skin and the razor-sharp nails became fingers. This time, I hadn’t even felt the change coming on. Usually, I had at least the forewarning of building sensations—the “too big for my own skin” feeling, telling me I would soon stand on four legs instead of two. This time, though, there was nothing, which was even scarier than the change itself. I had become something. I wasn’t sure whether it was Amelia who had changed me, or if this was the difference all of my foster parents had always felt in me. I was an animal and I needed help before the wrong people realized it. I didn’t know who those people were, but I could hear what Amelia hadn’t said earlier tonight. There was so much more to the story and no one was safe
—
least of all, her.
I needed help. It didn’t matter whether I wanted it or not. She told me to go to Cole, but I wasn't ready for that. I couldn't look at him without seeing her. I couldn’t walk inside his gym, past the training room where I’d held myself back from kissing her so I wouldn’t scare her away. Tossing my bag back in the car, I slammed the trunk down with a little more force than necessary. There were so many thoughts in my head but most of all, I worried about Amelia. She still didn’t know who she was. I had tried to give her space to find herself, to see that the two of us together were more than we could ever be alone, but too much had happened too quickly. Now, I just prayed she was safe.
It was still early morning, but I couldn’t go home. I was too amped up from everything that had happened last night. Since I was always starving after shifting and a night of doing who knows what, I stopped at a local spot for a monster-sized breakfast burrito. I tossed my flip-flops back into the car and walked toward the beach, scarfing down the burrito in record time. I watched as the waves came in and the surfers navigating them. There were hordes of surfers, most just sitting on their boards, bouncing up and down as the water beat against the shore.
I dropped to the sand, losing myself in the sound of the waves and the seagulls searching for their own breakfast. The world stood still in those few minutes and my mind was quiet. I felt like myself. Aidan the man. Not Aidan the beast.
Looking on while one surfer rode a wave, stretching across the horizon, I was shocked to see platinum blond hair standing out like a beacon down the beach from me. I pushed up from the sand and slowly walked toward her. Bethany sat in much the same way I had just been, her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped around them as she stared out into the water. Her hair whipped around in the breeze and I couldn’t see her face. As I closed in on her, I saw the familiar motion of wiping away tears.
“Bethany? Are you okay?” I looked down at her as she contained her wild hair and looked up at me with red-rimmed eyes. She wasn’t wearing any make-up. I’d never seen her look so vulnerable.
I shouldn’t have been surprised when she responded with her normal sarcasm. “You know, I can’t imagine why anything would be wrong, Aidan. My best friend was kidnapped right out from under my nose, I was held hostage by a psychopathic Queen on a power trip after I had been kidnapped by animal witches, or AniMages, or whatever they’re called, my boyfriend turned out to be a two-timing douche with magic powers, and I’m nothing but a human who gets used as bait and leverage. Can I do anything to help any of them? Nope. Sure can’t. So, it’s been a fine week. How about you?” she ended, a completely fake smile on her face as she stared daggers up at me. I couldn’t help but laugh.