Luminescence (Luminescence Trilogy) (15 page)

He turned the key in the ignition
cutting
o
f
f the engine.
The keys jingled
,
slicing
through
the
dead air
and
followed by his voice
.
“I don’t know where to start. This
is
all so much harder than I ever thought possible,”
he admitted. His hands tightened on the steering wheel as he fought to find a way to tell me.

Biting the inside of my cheek,
I had no i
dea how to comfort him or make
it any easier. My eagerness was brimming at the surface. I couldn’t take my gaze off his form,
but he kept his averted
.
I waited patiently; it was all I could do.

He broke the silence
again
.
“My family wie
lds magic. And has for generations,”
he revealed in a voice strained with
uncontained control.
He flicked his wrist and
the
silver woven ring
I’d been wearing
on my middle finger
was in the palm of his hand.

I’d felt a ripple in the air and narrowed my eyes
at the
ring in his hand. Turning my hand over
, I heaved as
understanding started to sink in.
“Are you
telling me that you’re a… witch?”
My
m
ind whirled with reluctance, even with everything that I had seen with my own eyes. All of it was impossible to believe.

“Y
eah I am,” he admitted
, keeping his eyes focused on the
silver ring
.

“What do you mean
,
you’re a witch?”
M
y voice
caught
on a hitch. Maybe I might have
lost
something
in
his words.
I still couldn’t get myself to accept what he was claiming, but if I really let go of the disbelief, I knew it made sense. And that scared me the hell out of me.

“You kno
w what I mean,” he rebuked, twirling
the hoop at his lip
, reminding m
e that this was hard for him t
o
o
.

Of course I did. Taking a deep breath, I stared at all the luminous stars dotting the night sky.
There was so much out there I’d probably never understand.
“Your
family isn’t
the only ones, are they?” It only made sense that if they were witches, others existed as well.

“No,
witches are everywhere
and have been around for centuries
. T
here is a
n
entire
organization,”
he informed
and handed the
ring
back to me
.

Whoa, an organization? What like a cult?
I wasn’t so sure it was
such
a great idea
to just now
compare them to a cult.

I took
the ring
from his hand
, slipped it back on my finger
and ask
ed
,
“How does it work? Your magic?”
My gut said there
was no denying this
absurd possibility
. The guy that I was absolutely head-over-heels crazy about was a witch. There was no time to dissect any feelings I might have about the idea – not with him so close
and able to read
my emotions.

He finally looked me in the face and a sigh of relief escaped. “It’s hard to explain. Mostly it’s control over energy. Everything around us pulses with a life force. Witches are just more in tuned with those energies.” He absently toyed with the leather cuff at his wrist.

“Is tha
t why your eyes glow?” I recalled
the unusually
fiery glow
to
them
sometimes
, like tonight
.

He nodded his head. “Yeah, the stronger the spell, the more strength it takes and the more I
give myself into the spell
. The magic pulsates from with inside me
.
”

“Do you just have to think about
it
for it to happen – the magic?”

“For experienced
witches, yeah it’s as easy as breathing to cast a spell. For me it is a little more complex.
I have to concentrate on the spell and keep it in line with the energy, whether it is my energy, someone else’s energy or matter.”

It all sounded a lot harder than I envisioned. Not just a swoop of the hand or blink of the eye (bewitched totally came to mind).

“Some spells come easier, depending on what kind of witch you are,” he continued.

“Wait what… There are different kinds of witches?”

His lips upturned a little at the corners. “Yeah
… I would need all night to tell you everything I know. We should probably just stick to the basics for tonight,” he suggested.

Point taken.
“What kind of witch are you?” I asked. That was basic, right?

He shrugged. “My magic specializes in defense spells.”

“Defense spells? Like what you did tonight? Saving me?”

He looked out the windshield again, focuses on some hidden shadow I couldn’t see. “
Yeah.
”
H
is normally husky voice was harsher.
“That never should have happened. I should have been able to stop it
before it even came near you,” h
e said painfully berating himself.

I hated hearing it. What he had done
was
saved my life.
“Hey,” I said, touching his arm and forcing his attention back at me
.
I tried to ignore the zap that always came.
“Are you kidding? What you did was beyond am
azing.
You are always saving
me.”

“That may be, but that was to close.
I should have been more aware of what was going on,” he scolded himself.

“I fine okay?”

He nodded his head in what I hoped was acceptance
, yet his eyes betrayed him
.
He found himself solely responsible
, making my grind my teeth in frustration and my heart thump at his protectiveness
.

There was one more question I had
to ask
, just to make sure
. “What about vampires and werewolves? Do they exist as well?”

He laughed under his breath
, chasing some of guilt from his eyes
– music to me ears
. “No
…
not that I know of.” His stance was more relaxed now that I hadn’t bolted from the car
and he wasn’t down on himself
.

“That’s a relief.”
I reached my hand up to feel for the necklace I’d been fiddling with all night and my hands came up empty. Opening the front of the hoodie, I glance to see if it had gotten under
it. Closing my eyes, I
dropped
my head against the back of the seat. “It’s gone,”
I
groaned.

“What’s gone?”
he asked
brows
drawn
together.

“My necklace, the one I was wearing tonight,”
I hastily replied.

“The one with the moonstone and amethyst? Are you sure it’s gone?”

I nodded my head. “I m
ust have dropped in the woods.” There was
no way I was getting that back.

“
I’ll go back and look for it, don
’t worry about it. I’ll find it,
”
he vowed. I could see the determination in his eyes. Everything about this guy was so intense.

I shook my head. “I don’t want you going back there. It’s fine. I’m sure I could try to replace it.” I don’t think that I convinced him, but I didn’t want him going back there al
one.

Yawning, I figured it was well past time I went inside. “Text me tomorrow,” I said as I reached for the door handle.

On a whim, I leaned in close to Gavin and press my lips softly to his. “Thanks again for saving me,” I whispered against his mouth. His head rest against the seat and I’d be lying if I didn’t say how much I wanted more. His eyes were still closed as I got out of the car.

Chapter 16

WALKING INTO MY ROOM, I
half ex
pected some monumental change – proof that life as I knew it wasn’t the same. Instead everything was just how I
’d left
. My shoe rack still hung over the door, the bed was messy
but
made and clothes were still scattered
haphazardly everywhere
. Quickly tearing off the muddy, torn gypsy costume, I tossed it on the floor with the others. Cracking my window, I let the n
ight air breeze in. Pulling on a
tank, cotton shorts and Gavin’s
familiar
hoodie
, I breath
ed in his signature scent
and the floral of my room.

I threw myself on top of my cluttered bed and buried under the covers as the nights events rolled through my brain – like a film. The weight of everything came crashing down like
a meteor. Before I could stop, there were
unexplained
tears streaming down my cheeks.
A patter of raindrops pelted the window glass in a sad harmony.

Gavin
had
saved my life
and the price for it was that I now knew he was a
witch.
The innocence of the unknown was long gone. I would have to deal with wonders of the world I was far from ready to handle. Then there was the fact
Sophie was a witch.
We had gotten so close. She was the younger sister I didn’t have and
a good friend. It occurred to m
e that
I suddenly had as many friends as I did friends with ma
gic
, which wasn’t saying a whole lot
.
I had few friends to begin with.
Way to balance the scales.

And where in all of this did I fit?

T
he gentle rainfall
mixed with my salty te
ars and uncontrollable emotions sung me to sleep.

Lukas’s distance voice penetrated my
slumber
. He was calling my name, calling me to him.
So
metimes it would fade out,
nothing but a hush. Then it would grow
,
beckoning me. I felt like his voice w
as playing tug of war
, p
ulling
me from one side to the other.

He caught me in his arms
as I tumbled into the dream.
I didn’t have to look up to know it was Lukas. He was as familiar to me here as Gavin was in the real world – or
what I thought was the real world.
I wasn’t sure of anything
anymore.

He held me at arm’s length, studying my face.
After everything, it felt really good to be held.
Being in his arms even briefly felt like being encompassed in
the suns solar.
I had to fight back
the tears that threatened to consume me again. The emotionally outlet left me drained and exhausted – even here.

“Okay what’s going on?” he asked at the sight of my
lost and puffy eyes.

You think I would have enough sense in a dream to make myself look hot.
Not like I cried myself to bed with useless tears.
It was absurd that Lukas looked like a golden angel and I looked like a train wreck.

“You have no idea,”
I muttered.

“Tell me,”
he encouraged.

“Where do I start? How about this – I was almost killed tonight by a tree that came out of nowhere only to be saved by t
hat new guy you are so found of,” I
began to ramble out of control, pacing in circles.
“
An
d then of course he can’t be lik
e any other guy – no. He’s a witch –”

“The new guy is a witch,” he interrupted
no altogether happy
.

“Yeah that’s what I just said
.
”
I
was
waving an agitated
arm in the air
.