A second later, my phone vibrated as a series of voice messages came in.
“Can’t we all just text or call each other? Using our magic seems a little archaic.” Tate’s voice message came first, and I noticed Simone smile, making me want to roll my eyes.
“I agree,” Fiona spoke next.
“You know Druella always does things by the book,” Adelaide teased me.
“Axel would have her head if she didn’t.” Faye laughed.
“I, for one, like it,” said Jericho. I could always count on him to have my back.
Pressing the button, I spoke as I walked toward our meet-up location. “Thank you, Jericho. When the rest of you become circle leaders, you can decide how you want to signal the end of the watch!”
“Tyrant!” Tala sang into the phone.
“Get over it!” I sang back and then checked the phone. “Rue? You haven’t said anything.”
“I’m already at the meet-up location, sitting and waiting,” she said.
When I walked through the trees at the circle of boulders we’d created in the clearing under the bent tree, Rue was already there in a black leather bralette top, short-shorts, spiked boots, and her jacket hanging over her shoulders, as she texted away on her cell phone.
“It’s clear someone has other plans for the night,” Simone said to her as she hopped onto her favorite rock. “Another hot date?”
“Please, do not tell me you were dressed like that fighting vampires?” I snapped at her.
“What’s wrong with my outfit?” She frowned, glancing up at me so I could see the nose ring that connected to her earring. Her bleached-blond hair wasn’t tied back, either.
“What is not wrong with your outfit, Rue?” I sighed, walking over to the largest boulder. “You think we like wearing these outfits every night? We wear them to leave no opening for a vampire to scratch us.”
And, currently, her white skin was exposed everywhere.
“They have to come close to do that. And I have yet to meet one that can,” she scoffed, going back to typing. “The vampire I came across tonight didn’t even make it within twenty feet of me.”
“Overconfidence leads to mistakes, Rue!” I called out to her, but she waved her hand to me as if I was her mom, and she was over this conversation—because that was exactly how it was even though I wasn’t her mother.
Except for Tate and Tala, each of us was a year apart, with Jericho the oldest at twenty-nine. You’d think we’d be mature, that we’d take our jobs seriously and act like adults. But sadly, we were nothing but teenagers at heart. And it wasn’t really our fault. Since birth, we’d all been raised strictly under the harsh protection of our coven. Forced to train and retrain
every day as we were born with extraordinary magic. Or, as my uncle said, magic beyond our years.
We never experience things like proms, or regular high schools, or normal relationships. Our destiny was first. We had a duty to protect this world from the monsters who killed our families, who wanted to drink our blood and that of humans dry. We were the nine of nine.
And, sometimes, the burden was too heavy.
“Looking hot, Rue,” Tala Blackwood said as she came through the clearing with her brother, luckily both of them dressed as they should. The Blackwood family was one of the oldest in Bymoor and belonged to the Iroquois Native American tribe. Both Tala and Tate were tall, each over six feet, with warm-brown skin and honey-brown eyes. They both kept their hair long, but, for some reason, Tate’s always looked better to Tala’s annoyance.
“Who do you have a date with this late at night? That sounds sketchy,” Tate questioned as he moved to sit by Simone…like always.
And she pretended not to care—like always.
“None of your business,” Rue shot back. “And thank you, Tala. Apparently, Druella has a problem with it. Jealous?”
I gasped at her. “Yeah! That’s exactly it!”
“Isn’t it because it shows too much skin?” Jericho Dupree said with his favorite white snake around his neck, hissing at Faye Whitmore as she teased it with her finger. Her red hair was out and exposed everywhere.
“I dress how I want, and I won’t let anyone shame me.” Rue huffed, but the moment we all felt the magic and saw the ball of earth, dirt, and clay fly toward her head, we knew Fiona was here.
“You little beast child!” Rue screamed as she got up, trying to get the dirt out of her hair.