Page 12 of Buried Secret 295

Her eyes suddenly open. They are now white. There is no separation in her eye now as they seem to glow from within. “You’re looking much better than the last time I saw you. We have been meeting about you. So many changes are taking place, and not all of us are sure about you.” Everything blurs around us, almost like nothing else exists except this conversation. “Youhave to train your body to contain more than it should. There is room; you just have to work from there. If not…” She laughs, her voice changing even more into something it wasn’t. “...then you’re not the one we think you are, and I will get to keep you.”

The wind stops, and Constantine and Simon seem almost frozen. Time has stopped around me. I blink, feeling the energy shift again, and everything seems to restart. Carmen pulls her hands away from mine, putting them to her face. She winces as she pinches her eyes closed. “Whoa, that felt off.” Carmen shakes her head. “Never had a reading feel like that.” She points to her arm. “Look, goosebumps.”

She isn’t the only one, but it’s something I don’t repeat out loud. It seems like something that I should play close to the chest. All I can do is shrug at her because I do not know how they normally go.

We both lean forward, looking at the blood, trying to interpret what they mean. I see symbols and blood, nothing more. “Umm. This acts like you have three majors and a touch of one?” She shakes her head as if that doesn’t seem right. “Caster and shifter are full gifts? But is your demon even fuller? Vampire is there, but not?” Carmen looks up at me, her eyes fearful, and gives me a weak smile. “Whatever happened, I am sorry.”

“What else does it say?” I am trying to move on from this. Simon and Constantine are treating me like I will implode at any time. I don’t want them picking up anything else they should worry about.

“Clairvoyant, empathic, and telepathic are your main branches that split off from there. Have you been hearing anyone’s thoughts? Seeing visions? Glimpses when touching anything.”

I feel all of their eyes on me. Every part of me is screaming to keep my death and whoever just used Carmen as their puppet a secret, at least for now. “The nurses and the beige lady, their thoughts almost felt like they were talking to me in my head.”

Simon nods. “Yeah, Lydia was spooked. The weaker the magic is in a person or, the more distracted they are, the easier it is to penetrate someone’s mind. Sometimes, people don’t mean to project them.” He pulls the collar of his shirt to the side, showing a tattoo of some kind. “Most of us have wards in place to prevent. Some refuse, depending on their power levels. Some don’t care.”

My heart slightly feels like it’s sinking. “Yeah, sign me up for those.” The thought of emotionally being on guard all the time sounds exhausting. I am so behind on any part of my powers. Being overtaken my first few days in Black Rose sounds like something will happen. I have a feeling that it will not be a walk in the park.

Constantine nods. “Did you see anything when you touched her?”

“There is something that seems to have wrapped itself around her. I can’t see past it.” She shakes her head. Her hands slightly tremble as she looks down at the tray. “I would like to do other readings sometime. But it's something I need to reflect on.”

Simon looks at Carmen with concern. “Are you okay? Do you need help with getting home?”

She gives him a small smile. “No need to fret over me.” Her gaze moves to mine before smiling sadly again. “I am sorry that I can’t be more help. That took it out of me.” Guilt eats at me, but my intuition screams to keep it quiet.It doesn’t seem like something we should share.My shadows and I agree with that, at least.

With a nod, I watch her leave. Simon walks her out, and I am left with Constantine. “What’s next?”

Chapter nine

Constantine pouts, all whileholding onto a tattoo machine that is still in its packaging, unopened. “You don’t seem to understand how badass I could have made them look.” Which has me shaking my head, snorting out a laugh, unable to stop it. I can only imagine what I would have looked like if he had gotten his way and been the one tattooing me. That doesn’t stop me from feeling ridiculous as I sit in the small kitchen nook in an old tank top of Simon’s that seems to swallow me from its size as I wait to be tattooed by Simon.

Simon rolls his eyes and sits on a stool beside me as he waves an ink pen at him. “Magic infusion through the ink is the easiest and most effective way to go about it.” He lets out an exasperated sigh. “Tell him you want me to magic these into your skin! Constantine will have you looking like a toddler drew on you.”Simon leans forward towards Constantine and taps the box with his pen. “You have no business owning one of those.”

Constantine waggles his finger back at Simon. “I watched a tutorial damnit! I feel confident that I can handle it.”

“Nope.” I point at Constantine as he tosses the package onto the table. Constantine sits at the small table nook and crosses his arms, pouting again. I shake my head and smile at Simon. “Can you weave them in between my scars? Maybe blend my scars and wards in with tattoos so they aren’t as noticeable.” I could probably have Simon take the scars away or blend into them, but it felt wrong. They were a part of me, and I wanted to keep them, but I also knew most of the supernatural community didn’t have them because of healing. Being kept from your magic, and only having access to a small portion while in the recovery cells, made them heal enough not to let us die.

There is a heavy pause between us all. I know my scars aren’t for everyone, but they are mine. I get to decide what to do with them and will be proud because I earned them. The blade marks that line my forearms remind me of learning. We had to practice and learn to fight somehow. When certain prisoners were getting too old, they became disposable. Rather than death, they trained the new recruits. I was a 13-year-old girl who didn’t know what she was doing. I got a cut wrist to elbow along my left arm on my first day.

My body told the story of my survival. “I can blend into some of these? Maybe help make them disappear?” He runs his finger along the grooves of my shoulder’s scar. I can hear the sounds of a whiskey bottle being tipped back.

With a shake of my head. “No, go around them. They are part of me. Go around them, highlight them.” I move my eyes to meet Constantine. “Makes me look more badass,” I add a wink to keep it lighthearted. People still winked, right?

It feels strange to be in someone’s kitchen getting drawn on with a ballpoint pen and a man’s reassurance that they will look badass. The man certainly likes to throw that word around a lot. “What’s the plan after this?”

“Well, that depends on you. We might have 12 more hours before someone shows up trying to find you.” Constantine states as Simon hits a tickle spot, making me giggle slightly. “They are going to start here for sure. Getting a warrant to come onto a magical campus is difficult since the campus is technically alive. We can stay here until then, or I can take you to my realm.”

“Ooh, you got an entire realm?” We haven’t exactly had a lot of getting-to-know-your-birth-father time.

“Prince of Nightmares, I’ll have you know,” Constantine shrugs, adding. “More commonly called the Prince of Sloth, one of the Seven Deadly Sins. I can better teach you about your powers in my realm, how to feed, and go into the veil, among other things. We can’t do a lot of the training here. Plus, we need my nightmares. They will help.”

I watch Simon as he moves to my forearm. “Did you seriously just write ‘thorns and roses’ on my arm?”

Simon shoots an unamused look at me. His eyes narrow slightly, and his lip purses. “I can’t draw.” He pauses and shakes his head. “Now it’s spelled to project the images from my head.”

Constantine slaps the table before pointing at Simon. “Knew it!”

“What are nightmares?” I question Constantine, not wanting to indulge in the childish antics of the two men.

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