“What’s that evil grin for?” Tess asked as she looked at Maria out of the corner of her eye. Ahead of them, Jessie and Leigha were giggling and gossiping about freshmen boys. “Nothing,” Maria said with an innocent shrug. “Fine, I just issued a challenge to Michael and now I’m waiting to see how he’ll pick it up.” “You challenged Michael?” Tess asked with raised eyes. “When cause the last time you talked to him you two were all sickening puppy love couple? Oh my God!” Tess stopped walking and turned Maria toward her. “You ‘just’ challenged him? Like right now, ‘now’?” “Yeah,” Maria said with a shrug as she pulled Tess along. “No biggie. I just issued a little challenge in his head. It was fun.” “There is a lot about this soulmate stuff that we’ve yet to learn,” Tess said softly. “I didn’t know that you could just talk to him in his mind like that. I thought that you would have to be a lot more…OH MY GOD!” Tess yelled as she stopped in her tracks again. “YOU HAD…”her voice softened as she noticed complete strangers looking at her oddly. “You had sex with Michael,” she finished with a blush. “You’re just now figuring that out Tess?” Maria said with a blush of her own. “Jeez, could you be a little slower on the uptake? I had sex with Michael months ago.” Ahead of them, Jessie and Leigha were still giggling, oblivious to the serious girltalk that was going on behind them. “You what?” Tess glared at her friend. “Maria Deluca, you know better than keeping things like that to yourself. You’re supposed to share these things with Isabel and me, like immediately after it happens. We are going to be having a serious girl’s night soon, like really soon.” “I know,” Maria said with a giggle. “But, if you knew what you were missing out on you would so be jumping Kyle’s bones like right now. There’s nothing in the world like it.” “That’s enough Maria,” Tess said, her face scarlet. “I don’t think I can handle anymore. Hey, isn’t that the new kids over there?” Maria followed Tess’ gaze to Jolie’s Diner where Max and Liz where sitting together at one of the tables outside eating. “Yeah, it is. And look who’s sitting a few tables behind them?” “Oh interesting,” Tess said, her eyes narrowed in speculation. “Looks like you aren’t going to be the only one with stuff to spill on that girl’s night now.” “If I get my way,” Maria said, never taking her eyes off Isabel and Alex, “you will have something to share with the group by that point too dear.” “Maria,” Tess warned, “I swear on everything holy that if you attempt to play matchmaker with me I’ll do something worse than that curse you’ve written in your journal.” “Fine,” Maria said with an innocent shrug, “I’ll stay out of your love life. But Izzy is a different matter all together. Are you in?” “Did you even have to ask? Hey guys,” Tess called out to Leigha and Jessie. “We have twenty minutes until we have to meet the guys for the movie. Do you want to go to the Yogurt Pump?” Both girls nodded and Maria and Tess grinned. There was nothing like a little sugar rush to help the creative matchmaker juices flow…and the torture ones to in Maria’s mind, cause she had lots of wicked things to plan out for Michael. ****************** “Here Kyle,” Tess called out twenty-five minutes later. “We saved you a seat.” Of course the seat was beside Tess on the very end of the aisle. Kyle had been the last of the group to arrive. Jessie, Leigh, Ryan and Trent were on the back row opposite of them, and Michael and Maria were sitting on the other side of Tess, both trying to ignore the other. Kyle smiled at Tess as he sat down. “Hey,” he leaned over to whisper to her, “what’s up with everyone?” “Well,” she whispered back. “Maria threatened to cut Michael off if he didn’t fix things with Trent. Michael did, but now he’s all pissed cause Maria threatened him into it. The ‘Juniors’,” she used the fond nickname that everyone referred to Jessie, Ryan, Trent, and now Jessie as, “are all sitting over there because they didn’t want it to look like they were being baby-sat by us ‘Elders’. And Trent and Jessie aren’t speaking because they got into that fight earlier this week, and now they aren’t talking to Ryan and Leigha because they suckered both of them into coming tonight.” “OK,” Kyle whispered. Then his eyes caught something else about three or four rows in front of them. He turned back to Tess with a mischievous grin. “Hey isn’t that Isabel and Alex sitting together? I thought that they couldn’t make it?” “Evidently they didn’t want to be seen with us?” Tess said with her own mischievous grin. “But don’t worry, they haven’t noticed us here yet. Last time we talked to them they thought we were going to see Oceans 11. Now we’ll have prime stuff to pick on them with the next time we see them.” “You guys do that a lot,” Kyle said, as he got more comfortable in his seat. “Pick on each other I mean.” “Yeah,” Tess said as she scooted down in her seat too. “I guess we do. We’ve all known each other for so long, and been so close that we can’t help it. Don’t worry you’ll be a part of the loop in no time. Though I don’t know if that’s good thing or not. Michael and Maria can get vicious sometimes, especially if they have good ammo.” “I’ll keep that in mind,” Kyle said as he tried not to make it too obvious that all he could do was stare at her. She was beautiful tonight, not that she wasn’t usually like that, but tonight she was especially beautiful. Her hair was pulled off her neck in a messy twist that had curly tendrils falling around her face. He didn’t know much about make-up because, hey, he was a guy, but he knew enough to know that if she was wearing any tonight, it wasn’t much. All she had on were a pair of dark blue jeans and a fitted ¾ length shirt. She wasn’t all dressed up, she usually was a bigger fashion plate on a school day, but for some reason, tonight she looked amazing. And god, she smelled like sin…Kyle shifted in his seat. How the hell was he going to sit through the movie and not attack her like a wild animal? ********************* Three seats away, on the other side of Maria, who was sitting beside Tess, Michael was wondering something along those lines. What the hell was Maria trying to do, kill him? She had worn her hair down damn it. She knew how much that got to him, especially when she made it all curly like she’d done tonight. And, he didn’t even know how the hell he was going to outlast her when she was showing off those legs like that. When the hell did she buy a skirt? Especially a skirt like that, it should be considered illegal to wear something like that in public. He was dying and he knew that she knew it. She had even put on some new kind of perfume that he had a sneaky suspicion that she had created herself with just him in mind. It smelled like that clearing by the creek…like midnight and jasmine and honeysuckle. Jesus Christ he was a goner, he wasn’t going to last the movie. He scowled at that and shifted in his seat. He be damned if he gave her that satisfaction. He’d last the movie if it was the last stupid thing he did. Beside him Maria was torn. She knew that he was staring at her, which was good. She was winning, she knew it…but Goddess above, how the hell was she supposed to last long enough to be declared the winner? When she had issued the challenge she hadn’t gotten a good look at him. Her mouth had watered outside the theatre when he’d walked up with the twins. He was wearing tight dark blue jeans, and an extremely tight black t-shirt that showed off every single muscle in his upper body…every single muscle that she had claimed and marked as hers in the past couple of days. She hadn’t betted on this. Damn the soulmate connection! Now she was all missing it. She was addicted to it, to him; to the them that they were when they were together. And now it was calling her to him, really it was. Her soul was reaching for his so much that she had to use all her willpower to call it back to herself. She would not be the first to give in damn it. She had issued the challenge, and she would win the stupid thing if it was the last thing she did in life. ********************* On the other side of the theatre Trenton glared at anyone and everything. The good mood that dinner had left with him was long gone now. And damn it, that moron Liam Brody was sitting in the row in front of them. Now Jessie was all smiling at Liam and still ignoring him, and good God above she was wearing girl clothes! Jessie didn’t wear girl clothes. She wore big baggy jeans and bigger sweatshirts. She did not wear fitted black pants and even more fitted black tank tops. She did not wear makeup on her eyes that made her look all mysterious and woman-like. Damn Tess, and Trent knew that it had been Tess who’d gone all makeover happy. Tess was always trying out new looks on the girls. But Jessie had always run screaming from the room. Why the hell hadn’t she done that tonight? And, Trent swore on the high Goddess Hecate, that if Liam Brody didn’t quit drooling he was going to turn him into the jackass he really was. Jessie tried not to grin as stupidly as she was on the inside. She knew that Trent was staring at her almost as much as Liam was. All she wanted to do was run up to Tess and give the older girl a big kiss. Goddess bless girls like Tess that knew all beauty’s secrets and weren’t stingy with sharing them. And Leigha, with her quiet advice, had been dead on about how to handle Trent. Leigha had told her earlier that afternoon at Jessie’s house that if she really wanted Trent to notice her to ignore him like he didn’t exist. At first Jessie had thought that it would never work, but Leigha had explained that Trent was used to her reacting to him with temper and insults and that if Jessie would just react in a totally opposite way that Trent would view her in a totally opposite way than normal. And Leigha had been right, he had. Now if only Jessie could get Liam Brody to stop reacting. She liked the guy, he was sweet for an outsider, but if he kept staring at her like that, not only was Trent going to kill him but so would Alex if he emerged from Isa-land long enough to look around him. ******************** Alex knew that he was grinning. He couldn’t help it though. He was sitting in a darkened movie theatre with Isabel Guerin, his Isabel, and she was grinning back at him. Yes they were supposed to be watching Liz and Max, and they had, every since they’d seen the two of them enter Jolie’s. But Max and Liz hadn’t been doing anything except staring into each other’s eyes like the world around them didn’t exist. So, Alex didn’t feel too guilty for gazing at Isabel and grinning like an idiot. At least he wasn’t looking like Max and Liz. And he was seeing a movie that he’d been waiting years to see, and he was seeing it with Isabel. He couldn’t get past that part…he was with Isabel. His grin got even bigger as he tentatively reached for her hand when the opening credits started. “Oh my God,” Isabel thought to herself when Alex’s hand grabbed hers. “He grabbed my hand. What do I do? Oh God, what do I do? Jesus calm down girl,” her more calm, rational part of her mind told her, “breathe. It’s not like you’ve never held his hand before. But the last time was in elementary school when we were starting kindergarten,” she added in afterthought to herself. She glanced at Alex from the corner of her eye and then even the cool rational, ice princess side of her brain began to freak. “Goddess above he’s grinning. He’s giving me that incredibly adorable, completely deadly Alex grin for which we have no defense. Oh Hecate help me,” Isabel pleaded in her head, “I can’t control myself when he does that. If he doesn’t stop grinning at me I’m going to…” ******************** “You know that they’re all in here don’t you?” Max whispered to Liz as the movie started. Liz sighed and nodded. Her mind was far away from them at that particular moment in time. This was Max/Liz time, not even witches, or witch suspects, got in the way of Max/Liz time. “We’ll deal with them later though,” Max continued. “We know how to do that.” “Yes we do,” Liz giggled as she tossed her hair behind her shoulder. “They won’t know what hit them.” Then she was quiet as Max began to kiss her passionately. God she loved witch-hunting. It brought all kind of rewards from Max. ********************** “Is it just me or has everyone disappeared into couple-hood thoughts?” Leigha leaned over to whisper in Ryan’s ear. “Look, even Trent and Jessie are trying to look like they aren’t staring at each other.” “Yeah they are,” Ryan said with a grin as he looked around at his family. Then his grin faded as he turned and looked at Leigha. For someone who was so small and young looking usually, she sure did look pretty tonight. Evidently Tess had been in a really happy makeover mood tonight. “You look nice Leigha,” he told her seriously. “Really?” She asked him as she began to blush softly. “Tess said I couldn’t leave until I let her play. I think she got a little militant with the whole makeover thing. You should have seen her fighting with Jessie over what Jessie had to wear.” “Well,” Ryan grinned the wicked Guerin grin that made all female hearts quicken, “she outdid herself in all cases. Since everyone is in couple world at the moment,” he said as he cleared his throat, “maybe we should hang together so we don’t feel left out.” “That would be ok,” Leigha said softly, so softly that if Ryan hadn’t been listening carefully he would have missed. “But we should really pay close attention to the movie so that we can rub it in all their faces later.” “Leigha Deluca,” Ryan laughed softly as he took her hand hesitantly in his, “you are quite the little imp. I like that about you.” “Well Ryan,” she said as she began to intently watch the movie, interlacing her fingers with his at the same time. “I am a Deluca. What did you expect?” *************** Beside Tess, Kyle tried to pay attention to the movie, but he couldn’t. All he could think about was her…well her and this nagging feeling in the back of his head that they were all being watched. But he figured the ‘Juniors’, as Tess had referred to them earlier, were doing the watching thing. After about ten minutes of trying to pretend to watch the movie he gave up and just took her hand in his. Tess turned to look at Kyle, and her world fell away. She stared into his beautiful light hazel eyes and began to sink into an abyss that she really didn’t want to escape from. And the most amazing thing was that he was sinking right along with her. She didn’t really know who made the move first, but one moment they were gazing intently at each other, trying to figure out what the other was thinking, and the next they were…well they were devouring each other in a public movie theatre. And truthfully neither one of them really cared. All they knew was that it was perfect, that for those few moments in time that they were both perfect. They had both finally found the home, respect and caring that they had been looking for, and they found it in each other. ******************** Michael was warring with himself now. Forty-five minutes of the movie had gone by and Maria still wasn’t…well she wasn’t caving in first. And to make matters worse, that ass Valenti…ok Valenti was an ass but Michael wasn’t at his best right then…had been getting action from Tess for the past fifteen minutes. He didn’t think those two were ever going to come up for air. And right now he’d never been more jealous of any two people in his entire life. If Michael didn’t give in soon Maria was going to have to resort to drastic measures. It was getting down to the nitty-gritty now. She decided to be a little more devious and shifted in her seat, re-crossing her legs. The action made her all ready thigh-high skirt inch even closer to the danger zone. Beside her Michael groaned and shifted in his own seat. In the process, his arm grazed hers and shivers of awareness rioted through both of them. “Oh f*ck it,” Both thought to themselves as one unit they turned and basically attacked each other. The connection formed, and immediately they were yet again one entity. “This is so not me giving in,” the Maria part of their conscious said. “Who says anyone is giving in?” the Michael part returned. “Truce,” both said together, “this is merely a temporary truce. We’ll go back to the war later.” And then their dual conscious was silent as they both began to gentle their attack on each other and just became. ****************** Alex had no idea what was happening on the screen, nor did he give a damn. He hadn’t seen anything of it since the opening credits. After he’d grabbed Isabel’s hand, a very forward and brave move for him, he’d turn to her to grin his excitement at the movie. And then she’d done the most amazing, completely shocking thing in the world. She’d growled at him. She had growled and snatched her hand away from his, and before he could contemplate any of it, she had grabbed his head and pulled it toward his. And then…well Alex didn’t really know what happened then because after that point he’d pretty much died and lost all track of reality. She kissed him. She had taken one look at him, grinning that grin which no one, absolutely no one had any sort of defense against, and she hadn’t been able to control it anymore. The Guerin side had taken over. If she had been thinking at the moment, Isabel would have been appalled at the fact that she had really and truly growled at him. What the hell happened to the more rational and normal Harper side of her personality? Because right now it was completely gone, and in its place was the more aggressive Guerin side that was saying ‘Alex is mine now and I’ll kill anyone who thinks differently’. She had no idea how much of the movie had gone by at this point and she really didn’t care, because right now she was with Alex completely, as her body had been made to be, and her soul was right there too, mingling with his. It was gentle and sweet, and everything that Isabel had ever dreamed that she would have. There was no invasion of her mind, it was more like this completion of herself, of Alex’s self. It was a new confidence in each other and their own selves that never would have come about without the other finally giving into fate. It completion of a destiny that both now knew and recognized and would never be able to turn from, not that either would ever want to. *********************** Elsewhere in Willow Oaks, an enemy was setting things right. There was more in this town to play with than anyone of them had ever dreamed. There were witches, and humans, and hunters to destroy. Life, the enemy that no one knew of decided, was delightful. Life was a sweetness that had never been expected. Not only were there humans, the weak and pitiful humans just made for playing with, not only were there hunters, idiotic humans that actually thought they were a threat, not only were there witches, the natural enemy of their kind and the most fun to destroy, but there was also the one they’d been searching years for. Vengeance was theirs now…it was all in place. They just had to bind their time. And the best part was the only ones who could possibly stand in their way, the precious Royals, were so wrapped up in pathetic and worthless teenage love that they would never notice the danger until it was too late. TBC

Part 16