Page 6 of Exes, Hexes, and Strategy
Rafe frowned. He’d never put much stock in fate, or predestination, preferring to think they each forged their own path in life. However, that wasn’t a conversation for now. Instead, he responded to the question asked of him. “No. I was called in to speak with Miss Rhys after the welcome speech, and then I went to find my room. But I intend to track her down once we’re done here.”
“Don’t,” Logan bluntly replied, sitting back in his chair. “If she feels hunted, cornered, she’ll lash out. If you’re looking for answers, you probably won’t get far. Better to manufacture a situation where it looks like you’ve run into each other accidentally.”
Rafe considered that, nodding thoughtfully. It was actually an excellent strategy and one he should have thought of himself. “That’s smart, I like it.” Grinning, he asked, “You’re a cat, aren’t you?”
The other man looked appalled at the suggestion, a rumbling sound coming from his chest. “Hell no.” Raising his arm, the man pointed at one of the occupied tables on the other side of the dining hall. “Those two are cats.”
Glancing over, Rafe saw a man and a woman that looked similar enough to be siblings if not twins. Both of them had dark blonde hair and were built on lean, athletic lines, whereas his roommate looked like he could bench press a bus.
Turning back to Logan with a raised brow, he admitted, “Point taken,” before asking, “wolf?”
Logan simply shook his head with a smirk and pointedly said, “Rude,” before hunching back over his food.
Rafe couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’ll figure it out.”
Chapter Four
The get-together with the witches had been interesting. The seven of them had the common room to themselves, and after a few drinks, had begun to show off their talents. Every witch was born with a magical gift, something that was their specialty that they could do without any incantation or spell. Nina’s gift was with water. She could make water droplets dance about or even pull small amounts of moisture from her surroundings – when she wasn’t freaking out and making it rain. Mel could create illusions, ghostly images pulled from her mind that looked almost like holograms. Her friend had always joked that her gift was useless for anything but maybe working at a haunted house on Halloween.
As for the others, Skylar, who had issued the invitation and hailed from Florida, could bend light, while Ethan, who was also from Florida but belonged to a different coven, could control wind. Jordan, from Texas, had a minor empathic ability. She could sense, and on a smaller scale, manipulate emotions. Andrew, who was a native to New Orleans had an affinity for metal and found making charms and totems a breeze.
And then there was Kelli from Alabama who had impressed them all with her cards. The woman had produced a deck of tarot and had handed them off to Jordan with the instruction to “Pick a card and hold it up so that you can see it and I can’t.”
They’d gone through several cards with Kelli guessing correctly every time.
“The deck is marked,” Ethan scoffed at one point.
The woman hadn’t taken offense, had simply shrugged. “Fine. Go write something on a piece of paper then and I’ll tell you what you wrote.”
Ethan had done so, ensuring there was no way Kelli could see, and yet, she was able to repeat what the man had written as he wrote it.
“X-ray vision?” Someone suggested, to which someone else had piped up with, “Like Superman?”
Laughter had followed, the group of them all talking over one another as they asked things like, “Can you see through lead?” and “Can you see my underwear?” Only for Mel to quip, “Well, that would be embarrassing since I’m not wearing any underwear.”
Ethan and Andrew had practically choked on their tongues, stuttering, and stammering, their eyes bulging as they stared in awe at Mel, which only caused the women in the room to laugh harder.
Finally, once the merriment had died down, Kelli had confessed, “I can see through someone else’s eyes for a few seconds. It’s a quick flash.” She shrugged as if it was no big deal. “It’s a sort of telepathy I guess, but I have to be close, at least in the same room with them.”
“Man,” one of the guys exclaimed, “would I have loved you in high school during some of my tests.”
More laughter followed, as well as several shouts of agreement.
It was a good night, a fun night, the bonds of friendship taking hold before they’d all decided they’d better get to sleep. With the amount of wine in her system, Nina should have slept like a baby. Instead, she’d barely slept a wink all night, expecting Rafe to come beat down her door demanding answers at any moment, and holding her breath at every tiny noise thinking it was him. Thus, she was both grumpy from lack of sleep and disappointed the next morning that he hadn't shown up and forced a showdown as she’d expected. Why hadn’t he come? Didn’t he care? Had he moved on? And if so, why had he followed her here? Those questions plagued her to the point where she was all out of sorts by the time they hit the training field.
Since it was daytime, there were only witches and shifters on the field, the vampires would be training on a nighttime schedule.According to their athletics trainer, Travis St. John, the separation wouldn’t be for long, however. They’d all be moving to a nocturnal schedule, soon, but they were being allowed a few days to ease into it to minimize the shock to their systems. Nice of them, though they didn’t seem concerned about the shock to their systems caused by such a dramatic increase in physical activity.
And the training was brutal. Laps. So many laps, with the shifters easily outpacing the witches. Some of them even running backward, grins on their faces. They didn’t even have the decency to look out of breath. Show-offs.
“I’m dying,” Mel gasped, leaning heavily on Nina as they dropped from a jog to a walk. “And why is it so hot here? It’s fall! Where are my cool breezes?” she yelled to the sky.
Nina couldn’t answer, too busy gasping for breath and gripping her aching side.
“If a vamp was after the lot of you,” St. John yelled, shaking his head, “you’d all be dead by now.”
“If a vamp was chasing us,” Ethan panted, coming to a stop on Nina’s other side, “we would have used our magic.”
The wind picked up suddenly, proving his point, as mini tornados spiraled around them, collecting dirt and debris before they just as quickly died down.
