Chapter 7

    It was after midnight when they came back home. Their grandmother was a lovely woman, but at the same time very vivid and could suck up all your energy! Climbing the stairs seemed to and extremely hard target now, but since Jay didn’t want to sleep on the couch in the living room, she had to make this last effort.  As she reached her bedroom she murmured “Night!” to her brothers, shut the door behind her back and sighed with relief. It was almost forty-eight hours since she woke up and she was drooping on her feet. Yes, she passed out for couple of hours, but since she went through a lot before it happened, she couldn’t count it even as a nap!

    Their visit at grandma’s house brought some answers, but at the same time more questions appeared. Nonetheless, Jay was very content as Isabela gave her a special pendant. Perfectly round onyx was unique, because it was bespelled by a witch about few hundred years ago. Isabela allowed Jay to take it for some time, so as she could control the mind flow, before she’ll learn to hide her thoughts and mind-link only when necessary. She now took it off and put on her dressing.

    Jay was even too tired to take a quick shower. She just grabbed from her drawer a pair of shorts and far too big T-shirt with the image of Donald Duck on it. It previously belonged to her twin brother, but Jess didn’t mind her taking his clothes. Actually, her brothers believed that it scares boys away from their little sister. When she heard a buzz sound she realized that she left her phone for the whole two days. Jay remembered that she turned it on when she came back from morning training, but completely forgot about it and went to her bathroom. She even didn’t check it after coming back from lake party.

    She grabbed it and checked who was bothering her in the middle of the night. She had few missed calls from Melanie. She left also two messages.

    “With T it’s getting serious!” 

    That news definitely worried Jay. She knew Tony Parker and he was nothing more but trouble. The second message left only two hours ago:

    “Call me ASAP!”

    It didn’t sound good as well. ‘Hope she didn’t do anything stupid!’ Jay thought concerned. She replied quickly.

     “Sorry, forgot my phone! Just came back. I’ll call you tomorrow!”

    There were also some missed calls from Maria and Sean, but Jay already knew about it, so she just skipped them. But she had to read the message Maria sent her.

    “Where the hell are you?! You are SOOO DEAD!”

    Jay smirked happily as Maria even didn’t shout at them when they finally got back home. And she didn’t ask questions. But then her smile faded rapidly. She had fifty-three missed calls from Bryan. She shivered, but opened the chat, as he left some messages too.

    “Hey Gorgeous! How R U today?”

    That was the first one and Jay guessed that when she didn’t reply, he started to call and write as some freaking maniac!

    “Did I scare you last night?”

    “Come on! Don’t be shy!”

    “Jay, seriously!”

    “You mad at me?”

    “Please pick up the phone!”

    “I’m so sorry, if I hurt you in any way.”

    “Just talk to me!”

    “Jaysabel!”

    She felt a little bit dizzy. He left about thirty text messages, all in similar tone. That scared her a little. ‘Fuck!’ She thought. ‘What he’s up to? We just kissed!’ She thought, but then frowned. ‘No! We were making out in the fucking forest! Just next to my brothers and his sisters! With all our friends and schoolmates around!’ She buried her face in the pillow. ‘He’s probably afraid that I reveal our small secret and Carter will go mad!’ Jay knew her brother well and he definitely could do that. ‘What’s the big deal?! It was just an experiment!’

    Jay preferred to think about it that way. Especially because it was weird. They were almost like siblings and thus they shouldn’t do certain things. And making out for sure was one of them! They were breaking rules! ‘But God, it felt so good at the same time!’ She thought. ‘And strangely, it seemed to be right.’ That thought scared her. She shook her head quickly and grabbed the phone to send him an answer.

    “I’m not mad! Just forgot my phone today… Ups”

    She really hopped that it will calm Bryan down. And that everything will be back to normal soon. She had too much on her mind at the moment. And she definitely had no time to play some freaking game with Bryan Weakfield! She was about to put the phone down when it ringed. She swallowed hard. ‘What the hell he wants?!’ She was confused and anxious. She wanted to pick it up, but was afraid to do it at the same time. ‘You’re not a coward, Jay!’ She scolded herself and pressed the green button.

    - Hello? – She said in shaking voice.

    - Hi beautiful! – He greeted her.

    - Something happened? – She teased him.

    - I was really worried that I did something wrong and now you don’t want to talk to me. – He admitted.

    - How could I? – She laughed. – We’re friends right?

    - And what if I don’t want to be your friend? – Bryan asked in a deep sexy voice.

    - What? – She gulped loudly. – You serious? Why? – She felt some kind of panic. – We’re like siblings! You’re Carter and Christian best friend! Mel and I are like sisters. And how do you imagine that anyway?! – Now she was angry. - We’ll start avoiding each other? Organize separate parties? Are we gonna ask them to choose?!

    - Jay! – He tried to cut in, but it was useless.

    - We’ll fuck you! – She hissed. – I’m not going to give way to you, because it’s all your fault!

    - What?! – He exclaimed.

    - Yeah, you hear me! You kissed me! It was your decision to cross the line, so you can’t blame me now!

    - I don’t blame you! – He managed to interrupt her. – Let’s make a truce.

    - What the hell Weakfield?! – She was confused.

    At that moment her bedroom door opened wide and her brothers got in. Jay frowned. ‘Why are they here?’ She thought surprised. Then she remembered that she took off the pendant. ‘Shit!’ 

    - Hold on! – She said to Bryan and turned towards her brothers. – Can I help you? – She lifted her eyebrow.

    - You okay? – Christian asked.

    - Yeah, why? – This conversation was already weird.

    - You’ve sent signals. – Mike said. – Disturbing thoughts and mixed feelings, so… - He didn’t finish.

    - So you decided to come in here and what? – She asked with sarcasm. – Would you mind? I’m on the phone! – She waved her hand.

    - And who’s that? – Carter asked.

    - Mel. – She growled. – It’s the time! – She stressed out the last words, but they seemed to be clueless.

    Jay quickly formed a thought in her mind. One that would scare them off and they won’t eavesdrop. She focused and passed her thought to her brothers. ‘How should I tell them that we’re talking about period?’ The effect was immediate.

    - No! No, no, no, no, no! – Mark covered his ears. – No! No! And one more time NO! – He left for his room.

    - That was mean! – Daniel stated and followed his brother.

    - I think I need to see some psychiatrist! – Jess gave her his miserable look and shook his head.

    - I won’t be able to sleep! – Carter whined.

    - Just go to sleep! – Christian ordered and they all left her room.

    - I’m back. – She returned to Bryan. – What were we talking about?

    - I proposed a truce. – He said amused. He wondered how she got rid of her brothers.

    - And that would be? – She asked.

    - What about a movie? – He proposed.

    - Continue. – She encouraged him.

    - Tomorrow at seven?

    - Sounds good to me. – She agreed. – See you at the movie. Night Bry.

    - Sweet dreams baby girl. - He hanged up.

    ‘Baby girl?!’ That definitely didn’t sound like her.

***

    The next morning they gathered in Jay’s room to talk, but they reminded silent. Their minds were full of hundreds of questions. They were filled with all sorts of emotions, from strange euphoria to overwhelming anger. Since they were kids they were aware of the fact that they descended from witches and they were proud of it. Later on they got to know, that they are children of the huntress, which also filled them with pride. But somewhere deep inside, at the bottom of their hearts, they felt burden, which didn’t allow them to enjoy new possibilities.

    Since the entry into force in nineteen fifty-ninth of the Act, which conferred supernatural beings the status of full citizens, not much has changed. Most were still hiding who they really are. What’s the problem for a vampire or a shape-shifter to change the address once in ten – fifteen years? New identity? No problem. For sure shape-shifters were more approachable as they lived in their small communities, but still close to ordinary people. Same witches. But vampires? They could hide for ages and still be monsters.

    ‘It’s not fair!’ Jay thought. ‘Sean isn’t a monster!’ Yet he was hiding. He withheld from the community of this city his true nature, only to stay with them. To take care of them, when their mother died, and their father didn’t show much enthusiasm at the news, that he’s their next of kin. ‘Why?’ She asked herself. ‘Why didn’t he fight for us? Why he agreed to Sean and Maria took care of them without any protest?’

    Then she remembered fragments of conversation between their father and grandma. ‘They’re more her children than mine!’ He said. ‘It’s your blood that runs in their veins, not mine.’ He was mad and embittered. If he wasn’t able to cope with the fact, that Isabo was the hunter and a witch at the same time, then how he was supposed to take care of seven kids, who inherited her talents?

    - It’s not a good time! – Jess decided to break the silence, which became unbearable.

    - And which moment would be right? – Carter was clearly annoyed. – For so many years we lead a sheltered life! – He was throwing words in anger. – Yes, I know, our mother only wanted to protect us! But for what?! So to pass us the necessary knowledge when the right time will come? Right for who? For us or her?! – His voice was full of regret and pain.

    - Does it matter? – Asked Christian quietly.

    - Of course, it does! – Carter was still seething with anger. – If she wasn’t hiding the truth from us so desperately, maybe it would be different now?

    - It means? – It sounded like a snort, and mocking expression even stressed out Mark’s irritation. – The only difference is that we would have started our training much earlier and our abilities would be on much higher level now.

    - It hasn’t crossed your mind, that she might still be alive? – In Carter’s eyes one could see disbelief, that none of his siblings has taken such possibility into consideration.

    - This knowledge would brought us only more worries! – Jay decided to stop brothers’ fight. – We were just kids and none of us could protect her. She wanted to gave us at least substitute of a normal childhood. I think that she did a wonderful job. – She said the last sentence almost in a whisper.

    They looked at her in silence. They knew Jay was right. Even if they had known who they are, or rather who they are supposed to become, they were still too young at that time to fight and save their mother. Carter had to agree with their sister, though being aware of it caused him great pain.

    - You’re right. – Christian walked over to Jay and hugged her. He knew her well enough to know, that she needed it right now. Despite constant verbal skirmishes and teasing each other, it was him that Jay came to when something bothered her. And she could always count on him.

    - But how to organize everything? – Asked Michael with his practical sense.

    - We’re not going to the end of the world. – Christian looked at his sister and winked. – We’ll organize everything, somehow.

    They all agreed and decided to leave it for while. To give their minds some break.

    - What would you say to hang out together tonight? – Jay asked. – We could go to the movie and then eat some pizza?

    - I’m in! – Mark was first to agree.

    - Sure, why not! – Carter was fancy about it.

    - I’ll call Mel and we can go with Weakfields? – She proposed.

    - That sounds great. – Christian added. – We haven’t been out together for quite a long time.

    - We had party two days before. – Daniel noticed.

    - It doesn’t count, cause there were too many people! – Jess said with a wide smile.

***

    Jay called Mel immediately. Her best friend groaned at the phone but wasn’t mad at her. Jay felt relieved. She had neglected her best friend recently. Fortunately Mel had something better to do than to hang out with her bestie.

    - What's up? – She asked.

    - Nothing special. – Mel yawned.

    - Then what that message was supposed to mean? – She sighed.

    - Oh! The message! – She snapped her fingers. – Tony asked me to be his girlfriend! – She shouted out enthusiastically.

    - And you rejected him, right? – Jay asked with hope.

    - What?! No! Are you crazy? – She was indignant.

    - Well whatever! – Jay scoffed. – You free tonight?

    - That was rude of you, but there no such a rule saying that you have to like my boyfriends! You lucky bitch! – She was still chirping. – And yes. I’m free tonight. What are we going to do?

    - Movie and pizza? The whole pack? – She proposed.

    - Hell yeah! – Mel replied. – I’ll talk to the girls and Bry.

    - Carter will call your brother. – She lied. No one has to know that it was Bryan’s idea. – He probably already spoke to him.

    - Okay! – Mel didn’t suspect anything. – What time do we meet?

    - Seven at the movie. But we can meet earlier, so you'll fill me up with details about you and Mr. Dickhead. - She rolled her eyes.

    - Copy that! You're the best! See you then, girl! – Mel sang to the phone.

    - Yeah! Bye!

    ‘You’re super bitchy, Tyler!’ She thought. ‘You’ll burn in hell one fucking day!’ She went to the bathroom to take a long hot shower and relax. She definitely had too much stress recently. Then she allowed herself for a short nap. When she woke up she went downstairs to help Maria with dinner and they ate in pleasant atmosphere. But then was the time to get ready for the movie – and she got stressed again. ‘Damn it!’