EarthBorn (The Elemental Born Book 1) (3 page)

“You okay?” Greg asked, concern upon his face.

The ground beneath my feet began to crack and shake as my panic sent my powers haywire. It was only a slight shake, nothing that anyone but me would feel… yet. I needed to get myself under control. I hadn’t lost control in years, not since I had gotten a better grip on my powers. I needed to leave… now, before things got out of control.

“Mmm…Yeah…Fine…I got to go.” Jumping up from my seat, I ignored Dyanna shouting my name and made my way outside, doing my best to not focus on the stares that followed me the whole way.

As soon as I exited the door, making sure that no one could see me, I fled, running full pelt over the land away from them all.

Chapter Five

~

Ethan

Well, one drink had quickly turned into two, then two to three. It was a good thing it took a hell of a lot of strong alcohol to get a werewolf drunk. Unfortunately for me, Zak and Frankie were well on their way to finishing the entire bars stock of whisky.

"What you need to do is... And then you could..." Frankie slurred as his head began to droop down towards the bar top. Another five minutes and he would be out for the count.

"Looks like it will be me going home with this lovely lady then." Zak laughed, not really in a much better state than Frankie. Grabbing hold of the blonde Frankie that had pulled, he yanked her onto his lap.

"No... I'm... Good."

THUMP!

Frankie’s head hit the bar top, his snoozing echoing through the room.

"Poor, Frankie. I had wonderful plans for him tonight,” the blonde sighed, looking down at Zak with a pout. “Well, I guess you'll have to do."

"You won’t regret it."

Slut.

"Well, I'm going to get this one back to the packhouse." My father was going to be majorly pissed in the morning when he found out Frankie got drunk. The guy was terrible with hangovers. "You guys want a lift back?" I asked, slapping a few bills down to cover my tab.

"No need, my place is just around the corner," the blonde said.

So with that, I chucked Frankie over my shoulder and headed outside to the SUV, slinging him straight into the back. He didn't wake up once. Not even when his head hit the door on the opposite side. Jumping behind the wheel, I pulled out of the car park, waving to Zak and the blonde, whose name I had no idea of, as they headed down the street.

As I drove down the dark country lanes, the large shadow from the old coal mine where the Wiccans tended to hang out in the distance, my mind drifted once again back to Kaia.

Where is she? What is she doing? Does she think of me often or at all for that matter? I should have left that damn necklace in the vault where I'd found it. Ever since seeing it she had been constantly on my mind. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was her walking out of that cave, hair glowing, eyes locked with mine.

As I passed by the gates to the pit, a figure suddenly dashed out in front of me, causing me to slam on the brakes. Screeching to a halt, only just missing the dark figure, I leant out the window watching them disappear into the distance. As I caught the scent of the person running away, my wolf peaked up, clawing at me to go after them. Whoever that was, he was desperate to get near them.

"Come back!" I heard someone yell as they came running through the gates, skidding to a stop to look out into the darkness for their friend. "For fuck sake," the girl mumbled. "Kaia!"

Kaia? It couldn’t be. Could it?

~

Kaia

I couldn’t catch my breath. With the panic taking over my body, shutting off my lungs from the air I needed to live, I couldn’t run any further.

I needed to talk to Grace, find out if there had been any news of the demon. But how could I ask her without her finding out that Dyanna and I had snuck out of the house late at night, without guards, and gotten the information from Greg? It just wasn’t possible. Knowing Grace, she would already know that Dyanna and I weren’t at home in bed anyway. She’d probably be waiting to give us hell the second we got back.

Wonder if all the Crones had that all-knowing thing going for them that Grace did?

Collapsing to the ground by the side of the road – I literally couldn’t go any further – short on breath and a sharp stitch in my side, I buried my head in my hands. If Grace was getting other coven members to place spells around the Circle, after she herself had already placed hundreds of them there over the years, then she really must be worried about the demon finding out what we were doing.

God, could things get any worse?

The answer was yes.

I vaguely heard the car pulling to a halt in front of me, the door opening and closing, and the steps of his approach over the whooshing in my ears, but it didn’t register. The first thing I knew of his presence was the light touch in on my shoulder as he knelt before me. I’d thought it was going to be Greg or Dyanna, maybe even Hannah to yell at me for taking up all of Greg’s attention. I never expected to hear the voice that I did when he spoke softly in my ear. “Come on, Kaia, I’ll take you home.”

My head snapped up, eyes widening in disbelief.
No, it couldn’t be.

He was just as I remembered, admit a little older. Dark raven hair streaked through with lighter shades of grey. Grey eyes swirled with amber as the wolf within him shone through. His body had changed. Instead of the slim teen I had known in the past, a young man knelt before me, his body muscled and toned.

“Kaia, come on,” he urged again, this time taking my arm and pulling me to my feet.

I automatically stood and let him escort me to the car, even though I knew I shouldn’t. I needed to get away from him. I had to keep him safe.

After he had me seated in the passenger seat and belted in he jogged around to the other side and jumped behind the wheel. As we drove down the lane I kept my eyes on the window beside me, trying to pull myself together. I needed to get control on my emotions for a number of reasons. Firstly, being that I didn’t really want to cause any natural disasters. My powers were tied to my emotions. It was bad enough that I had caused that little scene back at the pit, I didn’t want to cause any more. The second reason was that I needed to channel my inner bitch as I called her, the one I had used years ago to push everyone I loved away from me. Ethan included. I had to make sure he still hated me.

“You okay?”

“Fine,” I said through gritted teeth, not daring to move my eyes away from the window in case he could see the truth in them.

“You didn’t look fine when you ran out of that place and straight in front of my car. Or when I found you back there.”

I did my best to ignore him, to not turn around and face him as I so wanted to do. This was my only chance. My one and only chance to look at his beautiful face, to enjoy the sense of calm and safety I always got around him… but I couldn’t. He may have always brought a sense of security to me, of safety, but just being near me put him in danger.

“Kaia, tell me what’s wrong. Maybe I can help? You do know I’m just going to keep asking until you tell me, right?”

“I said I'm fine,” I snapped, not able to stop myself from turning to glare at him. Why couldn’t he just leave me be?

“She said she’s fine, dude. Just drive and get the stinking bitch out of here.”

Spinning around in shock, I found a pair of amber eyes glaring at me from the back seat of the car. I hadn’t even realised that there was anyone else in the vehicle.

“Shut your fucking drunken trap, Frankie.”

Frankie? I remembered him; he was one of Ethan’s best mates, one of the many people that Ethan had hidden our friendship from. I had hated that he had, but once I knew of the death sentence hanging over my head I’d been glad of that fact.

“Don’t know why you stopped for that witch, anyway. Chelsea’s going to kick your ass when she finds out.”

“You either shut the fuck up or you can walk the rest of the way. We’re not too far from the packhouse.”

Wait…What? The packhouse was miles from Grace’s place, almost two full hours away… but it was near my mothers. He was taking me to my mother’s.

Well, of course he was. He didn’t know where I had been for the past few years or that I no longer called the place home. “Fuck,” I hissed. How the hell had we gotten here so fast?

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“You’ve taken me the wrong way, that’s what’s up.” My mounting frustration gave my voice bite. Okay, so calling my inner bitch was not going to be a problem after all. I was angry and frustrated. Not at him, but at myself. I’d use that angry and frustration to make sure I pushed him away again. Make him remember that he hated me.

“What are you talking about? Your place is just round the corner.”

“No, my mother’s is just around the corner. And in case you have forgotten, I haven’t lived there in fucking years, and there is no way I am stepping one foot in that place.”

Looking a little shocked at the venom in my voice when I spoke about the place I had once called home, he pulled the vehicle to a stop and turned to me, his eyes locking with mine. “So where is it that you expected me to take you when I picked you up? I'm not a mind reader, Kaia.”

“No, but you could have used that tiny canine brain of yours and remembered that I no longer live around here. That’s if you actually have a brain in your head. From what I have heard over the years, the only place you seem to have one is in your dick.” I may have pushed everyone away from me and severed all contact with my old friends, but I had never been able to stop myself from listening to the local gossip on the rare occasions that I was in town. I knew he’d slept around in the past, though, hopefully, he would be mated by now. Maybe this Chelsea that Frankie had mentioned was her? But still, the thought of him with anyone made me feel physically sick. I knew it was for the best that I had pushed him away, I just needed to remember that.

“She’s got you there, mate.” Frankie burst out laughing from the back, causing a low growl of anger to escape from Ethan’s chest.

Ignoring his drunken friend, he said, “Still not told me where I was supposed to take you.”

No, I hadn’t. Would he know it was the Crones place if I told him the address? I doubted it, but I was worried he might ask questions if he did. There weren’t many witches that went to live with a Crone for their training unless they were powerful, important ones.

“Talk to me, Kaia.”

“Drop that bastard off first and then I’ll tell you.” Indicating to Frankie sprawled in the back.

“Remind me again why we hate this bitch?” Frankie spat back, his voice laced with sarcasm.

Five minutes later, Ethan helped a stumbling Frankie through the back door of the packhouse before setting off to take me home. 

“So where am I dropping you off?” he asked after we had been driving for a while, me just telling him to turn left or right when he needed to change direction.

“A farm.”

“A farm? That’s all you’re going to tell me?”

He didn’t need to know anymore.

“Come on, Kaia, you need to give me more than that. I'm not going to drop you off in the middle of fucking nowhere.”

“No, I don’t. You are a part of my old life, Ethan. The farm is part of my new one.”
What’s left of it
. “You don’t need to know anything. You just need to drop me off.”

Shaking his head. “I wish I knew what happened to make you change into the bitch you are today. We used to be friends. We told each other everything. Then suddenly overnight you changed into a bitter, selfish bitch. Whatever happened to you, Kaia?”

Fate happened. Destiny.

“Fine, don’t tell me, but know this. You keep making enemies the way that you do, and soon there will be no one left to pick you up from the side of the road.”

And that was the whole point. If no one cared, then no one would get hurt.

~

Ethan

What were the chances, really? For the first time in years, I had been thinking of Kaia, not able to get her out of my mind, and that very night she just happened to run out in front of my car? I still couldn’t believe it. If only she was the same girl I had fallen for all those years ago, before she turned into a bitch.

She looked the same, in the face that is. Her eyes were still that same dark leafy green. Her hair the same fiery auburn but cut much shorter to her shoulders. The biggest difference was her body. She was a woman now. Perfect curves. Pale, smooth looking skin. My wolf was going crazy with her scent filling the car. As far as he was concerned, she was his and always had been. He was clawing at me to do something about it.

That’s so not going to happen. Just because you like how she smells, it doesn’t change a thing. She’s not the same girl she was back then.

“I didn’t ask for you to pick me up. Greg would have taken me home.”

Greg? What was she hanging out with that douchebag for? If she thought I thought with my dick, what did she think of him? Greg was a complete male-slut. There wasn’t a day that went by when that guy wasn’t out trolling for pussy.

“Yeah, well, I am taking you. So come on, tell me where exactly I'm going.”

I could tell she didn’t want to tell me. For some reason she was scared to, I could smell her fear. Just when I thought she wasn’t going answer and that I would have to pull to a stop and refuse to go any further, she spoke, “Peterson Cottage on Water Lane.”

“Thank you.”

I’d heard of the place before, I knew I had, but couldn’t for the life of me think where I had heard of it. Kaia directed us for almost an hour and a half before asking me to pull up at the end of a long drive leading up to a small cottage. A strange green light was glowing from the porch, giving the whole place an eerie glow. I didn’t want her to go, neither did my wolf. I missed her, missed the girl I had spent all those perfect hours in the cave with.