The next morning Caleb walked out his front door to find Kiera sitting on her red Ducati next to the curb smiling at him.
“Hey, want a ride to school?” Kiera offered.
Caleb’s face lit up like a thousand-watt light bulb along with a grin that went from ear to ear. Slipping his backpack on he replied, “Hell yes!”
She threw him her spare helmet before placing hers on and starting up her bike. After he climbed behind her and put his hands on her waist, Kiera leaned her head back. “Hang on,” She cried out as she popped the clutch.
Caleb cried out in delight as they screamed away from his house.
Once the two teenagers sped away a woman wearing an expensive looking skirt suit stepped out of a limo that had been idling at the curb across the street from Caleb’s home.
The tall, voluptuous woman with straight black hair strode across the street with a purpose in her five-inch heels. She turned and examined the road after pushing the doorbell.
The tall woman turned when to sounds of the door opening and the gasp of surprise escaped the brunette who opened the door.
“Celeste,” The woman said.
“Mistress,” The brunette replied before pulling the door open then dropping to her knees in supplication to the visitor.
The newcomer walked inside and closed the door.
The grin that started when Kiera was waiting for Caleb outside his house hadn’t diminished by the time they had gotten to school or by the time he entered his first class.
“Dude, what’s got you in such a good mood?” Robert asked.
“Kiera was waiting for outside my house this morning offering to give me a ride,” Caleb answered.
Robert glanced toward the teacher before offering, “Good luck.”
Caleb was standing at his locker before his next to last class of the day, Current Events when someone slipped up to join him at staring inside his locker.
“Anything interesting or are you checking for some sort of Love Potion to use on the unsuspecting underclassmen?” Kiera asked quizzically.
“Pfft, I don’t need a Love Potion. I just have to wave my magic wand and then poof all the girls will follow me around like I’m the Pied Piper,” Caleb quipped causing Kiera to snort in response.
Taking his hand in hers, Kiera led Caleb down the hall. “Come on, Romeo we have a class to get to,” She replied.
The first thing he noticed was that Kiera hadn’t let go of his hand as they walked to their next class while she quizzed him on what the Current Events class was all about.
Caleb went on to explain to her that since the Emergence and the rise of the Brotherhood that most of the usual Human news sources tended to gloss over or misrepresent the involvement of the Supernatural World and would often blame one of the different races. He continued with how humans tended to fear what they didn’t understand or worse envied them for being born different and having what they believed to be an unfair advantage in life. The Humans also tended to forget things like the Catholic Church’s Inquisition, or The Salem Witch Trials and would often say that that was ancient history never realizing that there were beings that were still alive from those times.
Kiera was quiet while Caleb answered her questions. She gave him a soft smile as she also realized that she hadn’t let go of his hand as they arrived at the classroom just as the bell rang. Taking a seat next to Caleb she noticed the teacher for the first time. He was handsome no he was gorgeously dressed in a dark blue button-down shirt that made his crystal blue eyes stand out from under his sandy blonde locks and dark grey slacks. She looked at the blackboard to see he had written his name, Mr. Callahan.
Mr. Callahan leaned against his deck as the last of the students took their seats. “Good afternoon class, I’m sorry about missing yesterday, but I had a family issue that just couldn’t wait.” He offered in greeting before eyeing what Kiera thought might be a group of shifter kids, who all bowed their heads to him.
“Today we’re going to go over some of the recent events involving The Brotherhood and their actions. As you know, we have a Brotherhood Commanderie located not far from us not that they travel north of Boston.” Mr. Callahan said.
One of the Witch girls in the front row quipped, “That’s because they’re afraid of your mate, Mr. Callahan.”
There were some laughs and several nods from the shifter contingent.
Holding up his hands to quiet the class down, “What my mate does or does not do has very little to do with why The Brotherhood does not travel north of Boston. It has more to do with how the New England Pack and Salem’s Council of Circles run our territory.” He finished as his sharp gaze landed on Kiera for a moment before Mr. Callahan picked up a remote and began the day’s lesson.
That look Kiera got from Mr. Callahan made her feel like she had been exposed and that everyone now knew she was a Valkyrie operative. She glanced over at Caleb, and then the rest of the class and no one had even given it a second thought.
The class was eye-opening for Kiera, most of the events were nothing new to her. She remembered what it was like before she had been found by the Brotherhood, but the incidents that involved them had been shocking. There was no denying the footage of some of the events because it had come from The Brotherhood’s own personal video feeds. She wondered how in the hell they had gotten their hands on those.
When the bell rang, all the students jumped to their feet and made their way out of the classroom. Caleb and Kiera were following the others out when Mr. Callahan called out, “Kiera, could you stay behind please.”
They looked at each other and Caleb shrugged, “See you after school?”
She smiled and nodded at him, “I’d like that.”
Caleb flashed Kiera a huge smile, “Awesome, I’ll meet you at your bike.”
Mr. Callahan watched the byplay with interest between the young couple a smile playing its way across his face as he cleaned up his desk. He looked up when Kiera stood in front of him.
“Please have a seat,” Mr. Callahan offered.
Taking a seat in the front row, Kiera asked, “Am I in trouble for anything, Mr. Callahan?”
He moved around to the front of his desk and hopped up to sit on it. “No, you aren’t and please call me Micah when the class isn’t going on. I really hate the whole Mr. Callahan crap, but the school insists. It’s the only time I even acknowledge my mate’s surname.”
“Ok, sure thing, Micah, then why did you want to speak with me?” Kiera asked wondering why he took his mate’s surname. What man does that? She thought.
“You’re new here, and I’d guess you’ve never attended a school that is predominately filled with Supernaturals,” He paused when she nodded he continued. “You see the other Witches will take noticed that Caleb has a thing for you.” Micah holds up his hands to placate Kiera, “I don’t care, and frankly I think it’s great. He needs someone to ground him, and there’s something about you that I can’t put my finger on that does it. Now you need to know the other Witches will think that you’re a threat, not that they really want anything to do with him because he comes from God knows where and is not a member of a prominent family, but that won’t matter to those manipulative bitches.”
Kiera sat there taken aback not sure what to think. “You mean to tell me that those girls who make fun of him and his friends and basically ignore him will feel what? Threatened by me?” When Micah nodded, she went on, “Seriously? I’m just a Pyrokinetic. Why warn me? You don’t know me or owe me anything.”
Micah chuckled and slipped off the desk, “Because my mate, daughter, and granddaughter would have my ass if I didn’t look out for someone who might find themselves in too deep.” He reached into his top desk drawn and produced a business card and handed it to Kiera, “If you ever need help. Don’t hesitate and don’t worry about the time of day either. Now you better get going before you miss your next class.”
Kiera took the card and slipped it into her pocket before leaving for her next class.
Once Kiera had left the class Micah went to close and lock the door before he pulled out his cell phone and made a call. His mind wondered about the many things he had borne witness to in his long life including the more recent events centered around his children.
“Hello,” A female voice said on the other line.
“Maeve, I think we might have a problem,” Micah replied.
“At the school? What is it? It’s not Morrigan looking for her son is it?”
“No, but I don’t think we have much time before she shows up. Caleb’s power is growing daily, and I sensed a demon in the city yesterday. That’s not why I called, The Brotherhood is now in play. One of their agents is in the school,” he said.
“Shit! The Brotherhood, you’re sure? Of course, you’re sure, have they figured out it’s not a girl but a boy they’re looking for?” Maeve asked.
“Even better, they’re developing a relationship. Kiera has no idea, and I have a feeling that she’s going to be important to him in a way I haven’t figured out yet.”
“Ok, call me if you need me to come down. I’ve got nothing going on and would like some alone time with my Mate,” Maeve replied in a husky tone.
“You got it, I love you,” Micah offered before finishing the call.
After school, Kiera and Caleb rode her Ducati out to Fort Sewall, one of the many military forts that dot the Massachusetts shoreline used to defend against invading fleets.
Once at the fort they walked out to rocks and sat staring out at the harbor. They spent some time relaxing consumed with their own thoughts before Kiera broke the silence, “Why did you help me yesterday?”
Caleb leaned back bracing himself with his arms behind him. “I don’t know, but when I laid my eyes on you, it was like a shadow had been lifted from my soul.” He blushed and smiled sheepishly, “I know it sounds lame.”
Kiera reaches out and touches his arm, “No, it’s not lame. Sappy and romantic, yes, but not lame.”
He snapped his head up and looked to find her grinning before she moved closer and took his face in her hands as she leaned in and kissed him.
When they broke the kiss, Caleb took her hands in his, “You should know I have a darkness in me, something that touches my magic. It’s why I don’t use the Craft in public as a lot of the other witches.”
Kiera smiled softly at him, “We all have a little darkness inside, even I have done things that I’m ashamed of.”
“I just wanted to make sure you understood what kind of freak I am. Most of the witches at school are waiting for the day that I snap. Robert is the only witch that I have ever been friends with besides my adopted mom.”
“Really?” She asked.
“Yeah, which is weird because I’m friends with most of the shifter and psychic kids. Which leads me to my next question, what can you do?” Caleb said.
Kiera pulled a hand free, “This.” She held out her hand palm up and in a moment a ball of fire formed for him to see.
“That’s wicked cool!” He exclaimed before reaching out to get his hand close to the flaming orb. Using his Craft, he reached out with his other hand and willed a small column of rock to rise. Caleb motioned for Kiera to place the ball of plasma atop the column. “See, our own magical lighthouse.”
She gave him a ‘you’re a complete dork’ look before leaning her head on his shoulder.
Caleb looked at Kiera for a long moment before he turned his attention back out to sea. Why now and why me? It’s only a handful of weeks before I turn eighteen. Well, this has been an exciting start to my Senior year. He thought as they sat there in companionable silence as twilight approached.
It was long past dark when Kiera dropped Caleb off outside his house, and after three no four more kisses she headed to her apartment and what she believed would be another round of twenty questions from Veronica. She really wasn’t in the mood for it, but she did need to report about her day.
Her thoughts drifted back to Caleb and what he had said about why he helped her yesterday. The longer she thought about it, the more she agreed with him. There was something magnetic about him. She felt as if something had awakened in her when they first met. Kiera wrote it off as first day at school anxiety and all that other bs. Then they were holding hands between classes and then the kisses.
She would not be telling Veronica about the kissing that was for sure. After parking her motorcycle, she noticed that Veronica’s bike was missing. “Woohoo, a free night for me,” She whispered.