Exaltation (9 page)

“A routine with Soren?”

Raven nodded.

“Is that getting serious?”

She made a face.

“Guess not.”

Chapter Eight

When Jamison dropped Raven off at Emery’s house it was still daylight so all the front shutters to her home were closed. Everyone who lived there had to keep the outside of their homes historically accurate. During the day the doors and windows remained closed so you could see the beautifully aged regal aspect the Quarter had.

Jamison hugged Raven goodbye and told her to make sure her along with the twins and Soren were at Saige’s at one the next day.

Raven walked around the side of the house and found Miss Thelma Ray on the back stoop snapping beans into a bowl. Her husband Mr. Hennery was asleep in the rocking chair next to her and her old hound dog ‘NoNo’ was asleep at her feet.

“How was your day, Miss BellaRose?” Thelma Ray asked without looking up.

Raven adjusted her backpack on her shoulder. “Not bad. Figured out my mom is like otherworldly or something, my dad is, too. Leads a powerful coven and all. Oh, and I may or may not have caused three hurricanes when I was defending myself when I was a kid. Which makes me like some kind of awesome. That and my dad is going to teach me how to use energy, um, vim, as power.” She raised her brow to point out how cool that was.

No reaction.

“Oh come on, tell me I should be taking this seriously, that I shouldn’t be making light of it or the spirits will put me in my place,” Raven said, crossing her arms. “Let me hear it.”

“I don’t suspect any of this is shocking to you considering you have heard it three times over,” she said as she raised her eyes to look her.

“Oh yeah and I was drugged to forget my past trauma.”

“Blame me. I should have looked at that class schedule closer,” Thelma Ray said, shaking her head.

“Berries is a balding joke.”

Thelma Ray made her classic “ummhmm” sound that came from somewhere deep in her throat. She snapped the bean in her hand with a hard crack.

“Now, what I do want to know ‘bout your day is why your daddy had to take you to lunch when I
made
you a lunch?”

Busted.

Raven adjusted her stance. “No disrespect. I planned to eat your amazing, mouth-watering lunch. I just happened to be diverted from my intentions by unforeseen circumstances.”

She was trying not to smile, Raven could tell. “Go on now. Get ready for your dance thing.”

Inward sigh
. Raven rushed past her, hearing Thelma Ray laugh under her breath. She glanced back to see her shaking her head. Raven loved that woman. Everyone needed a Thelma Ray in their life. That much she was sure of.

Inside Raven found Emery wiping down a counter that could not get any cleaner. Ash had her hair in curlers, mascara in one hand and eyeliner in the other. She was saying, “Mom you cannot be that vague. What else?”

Raven assumed Emery had a similar conversation with the twins and Ash was not letting it go. Raven gave her a thumbs up then pointed to her wrist to tell her they were on a time schedule and to hurry her interrogation up.

Raven took the stairs two at a time. Her bed was in a loft on the second floor that led to the twins’ room. She dropped her bag at the top of the stairs and started to strip out of her school clothes. She found River in the bathroom leaning over the tub rinsing out hair color.

“Ah! You guys are killing me. We’re already late.”

“It will be dry and styled by the time you get dressed.”

“Joke’s on you. I laid out my clothes last night.”

“Nope. Joke’s on you. Ash has your shorts on already and I have decided the tank you have looks better with my jeans.”

“That’s
so
wrong,” Raven said, as she started to wash off her school makeup and prepared to put on her night makeup.

“How was it with your dad?” River asked, as she pulled her head out from under the water.

“I don’t know where to start.”

“Try.”

The thought to tease River about Berries being her dad crossed Raven’s mind. River saw the smirk. “What?”

“Your mom
knew
Berries.”

“How do you mean?” she asked as she stopped towel drying her hair with a look of horror on her face.

Raven busted into laughter. River shoved her shoulder.

“It was not his juice!” Raven said louder than she should.

“Did he tell you whose it was?” she asked with wide eyes.

“Not really. But…”

“But
what
?”

“I get the vibe that it came from someone my dad trusted.”

“You don’t think—”

“He didn’t admit to it or anything but I could tell he was worried about you being upset about it.”

“You told him that!” she said in a loud, harsh whisper.

“Well, yeah.”

“I cannot believe you did that,” River said as she blushed.

“Just chill. I never got conformation, but I think you should be looking around the Quarter for the juice man instead of hacking into files.”

“You’re just saying that because there is only one man in the Quarter that looks anything like us.”

Raven shrugged. “That would be so cool, to know for sure.” As soon as her mascara was on she added, “Maybe instead of teasing your mom we should have been teasing my dad. It was kinda of cute how interested he was.”

“What else did you guys talk about?” she asked over her blow dryer.

“Hurricanes and car crashes.”

“Same speech.”

“You’re not tripping over it?”

“Not so much. I had a few dreams about it, remember.” Raven nodded once. Nightmares were more like it. The girl woke up screaming on the regular. “But Ash is going nuts. She wants to know it all.”

“Did you hear my mom is from some other world and that my dad was at one time, and that he leads the Dominarum coven?”

“Like you didn’t know he led the coven. We figured the rest of that out way back.”

“True. Just odd to hear him come out and say it.”

“What about your mom. How are you with that?”

“Same as I was before. I told you I was sharing your mom and you could borrow my dad.” They’d made that pact in second grade.

“It’s still odd they chose today to tell us. Mom said your dad picked up a vibe at the school.”

“What kind of vibe?” Raven asked as she flat ironed the tips of her hair.

“I don’t know. That’s what Ash is trying to figure out. I exited the conversation as soon as Mom said in no way, shape, or form could we be homeschooled.”

River was over school about five years ago. And it was because she was bored. Basically she was a genius and couldn’t find hard enough courses to keep her challenged. This year she sparked interest again, but it was only because of what the girls had just gotten busted for. There was not a doubt in Raven’s mind now that the adventure was over River was looking for a way out.

Raven had tried to tell her to go to school for the boys, to be social, to have fun. River didn’t care for that. She was still a little broken over Mason Wade, who was clearly over her—Ash figured out he was seeing some Indiana Falcon girl where he lived now, a nice, normal—non witch, Quarter living girl. Oh, and she was
filthy
rich.

Needless to say, River kept her distance from boys for the most part, didn’t flirt. If she wanted something from one, attention, or whatever, she took it.

Currently she did have her eye on a few racers who hung out around the rink. Which is why River was all for Raven and Ash skate dancing. She knew at the end of the night they would all find their way to the crowd River was into.

“Heads up. We have to be at Aunt Saige’s tomorrow at one. Apparently we have to learn to meditate deeper so we can use and see
vim
,” Raven said in passing as she rushed to the closet, finding black shorts that were tight except for the low hanging cargo pockets in the front, and a different tank to wear.

She was rummaging through the hanger of a thousand scarves when she heard Ash come in the room. She was already dressed under her robe and only had to take her hair down.

“Who tells someone, ‘oh yeah, you are kinda a guardian to your best friend and you have done a stand up job of that—only three hurricanes and one car crash. But heads up, you are getting older and you might draw some attention to yourself so be sure to tell the other witches if you get a funny vibe, because we have already picked up on one. Oh, don’t worry about how or why you are what you are. It will all make sense one day. Just go out and have fun tonight. Here let me fix you dinner first. No, I’m not going to talk about if you received these traits from your father or me. Just let it go. I just wanted you to be aware. Next time we can’t drug you into a stupor. Oh and you might remember those other times but it’s no freaking big deal.’ Ughhhhh!”

River and Raven were doing their best to hold in a grin as they rushed around the room. Half the reason they were not tripping over any of this was because they knew Ash would be worked up enough for the three of them.

Ash pulled the scarf Raven had on off then reached in the closet and pulled out another one and put it around her.

“Why this one?” Raven was digging the skull one she had on and was sure Ash was just stealing it.

“This one will give a haunting look during the last spin.” Raven glanced down at the thin maroon one around her. She was sure Ash was probably right but wasn’t going to admit it.

“You know if you wanted to skate with him I’m cool with that,” Raven said to her as she loaded her skate bag up. She was grateful to skate—alone or not was no matter to her. Beyond that Raven was pretty sure if Ash and Soren didn’t do something about this long-standing hard-core crush, they’d both explode with sexual tension.

“The boy has
regrettable
tattooed on him somewhere,” Ash said, only halfway giving Raven her attention. She was still furious about earlier in the day.

“He’s a good guy. Hot,” Raven pushed.

“And you skate well with him.”

Raven stopped Ash from rushing around the room by holding her shoulders in place. “I have never kissed him when we practiced this but I think I have to tonight to make this come across right. I won’t if you have a thing for him.”

“Raven, I coordinated the dance. I’m the one who put the kiss in there. You’re not chickening out and using me as an excuse. If I had a ‘thing’ for him, he would be the first person to know.”

“She does,” River piped in. “And he wouldn’t.”

“Do not. Who has time for boys when apparently we are some kind of
guardians
.”

“He is, too, according to Mom. You guys could have little guardian babies,” River teased.

“Not funny, River. You don’t see me teasing you about your grease boy.”

“Racer. Because he’s hot and the complete opposite of any previous regrettables, and you know it.”

Ash let out a frustrated grunt. “Will you two ever take anything seriously?”

“I am always serious,” River said in a bored tone.

“No, you act as if life is a drag and Raven acts as if it’s heaven and I’m the only one in reality noticing something is up.”

River and Raven smirked. Raven put her bag on her shoulder. “I’m going to make this look hot tonight then I’m going to tell him that you told me exactly how to do it—that you had it all plotted out because you lie in bed at night and think of him.”

Ash’s mouth dropped before she could push Raven or make a comeback. Raven took off running down the stairs as fast as she could.

They heard Miss Thelma Ray yell out, “I know there ain’t no elephants in this house so I must be hearing someone running.”

Raven stopped her run and walked as fast as she could toward the kitchen.

She found that Emery had moved on to wiping down every appliance she had.

Feeling high on life Raven rushed up to her and grinned.

“Are you all right?” she asked, reaching to hold the side of Raven’s face in that motherly way.

“Perfect. By the way I told my dad today that you and him were perfect for each other.”

Emery turned white as ghost. Her heart was racing so fast that she couldn’t stand it. Raven leaned closer. “And he didn’t deny it.”

Before Emery was forced to say anything Ash came charging in the kitchen, apparently after Raven. The two of them ran circles around Emery. “So, um, curfew?” Raven yelled with a giggle.

“Midnight,” Emery said, twirling in place trying to figure out if Ash and Raven were truly fighting or just playing. It was always hard to tell. Raven never really got mad, and Ash always seemed to be that way.

“Driver?” Raven asked, running toward the door.

“River seems the calmest,” Emery called after them.

Raven snickered. “Only because Ash is like you in more ways than one.”

Ash lunged at Raven just as Raven closed the screen in her face then took off running to the Jeep yelling, “I love my life!”

***

The skate center was heaven to Raven. It was when she was in middle school, when it was just for her age, and it was now.