“We’ll see you guys later,” Maria called out to Alex, Michael and Kyle forty-five minutes later. They had all finished eating and were now at the school. Jessie, Leigha and the twins had all headed inside to go to the auditorium for Freshmen Orientation. Maria started to walk away when she seemed to stop and think about something. She nodded her head to herself and turned around, quickly walking over to Michael. “Excuse us for a minute,” she said to everyone as she pulled him aside. “Iz and I are going to go talk to Tess about whatever the hell that was back at Jolie’s. You need to keep an eye on Kyle while we do it. Tess saw something that concerned him, so until we know what she saw, we keep tabs. I’m not getting anything dangerous off of him, so play nice. Think you can handle that Guerin?” “Yeah Princess,” Michael drawled out, “I think I can handle whatever you feel like dishing out this week. Watch Kyle, got it, was planning on doing it before you said something. Don’t forget I get vibes too. Is that it?” He asked as he started to walk away from her. “Well since you think you can handle whatever I dish out,” Maria called out as she grabbed his arm and pulled him back around to her. “Handle this one too,” she mumbled as she placed her lips against his. For a moment Michael was in shock. Maria Deluca was willing kissing him in public. Then his mind shut off as the realization that his Maria was kissing him and all he was doing was standing there hit him. He wrapped his arms around her and returned the kiss, shocked that almost immediately the connection was yet again forming. But suddenly it stopped when she pulled away. “There,” she said with an impish grin. “Now Kyle will think that’s why I wanted to talk to you.” “You kissed me for Valenti’s benefit,” Michael managed to growl out. Maria looked at him in confusion and nodded. Why the hell was he mad at her? At her nod, Michael growled again and grabbed her. This time he kissed her, and he kissed her possessively. He’d be damned if she’d think about Valenti this time, she wouldn’t think about anything at all. “There,” he said as he let go of her, “now people know why I actually came over when you wanted to talk.” This time she let him go when he stalked away. “Something tells me that Maria’s plan for making it easy for us to talk just backfired on her,” Tess said to Isabel from where they stood. “Definitely,” Isabel said as her brother came up to her with a scowl on his face. “Maria wants girl talk,” he said angrily to them before turning to Kyle and Alex. “Come on Kyle,” he said to the new boy. “Alex and I will show you where the office is so you can get your schedule.” “You ok?” Isabel asked Maria as she and Tess came up to the girl who was staring after Michael in confused shock. Maria nodded absentmindedly but then shook her head when Isabel’s question registered fully. “Hell no I’m not ok,” Maria said in an angry tone of her own. “Why do I get the feeling that your brother just branded me for his in front of the entire school?” “Probably because that’s what he did,” Tess said with a smirk that would have made Michael proud. “But why are you all upset about it? I thought that you knew Michael was your soulmate. You can’t get more branded than that.” “One,” Maria said as she began to walk toward her locker, Tess and Isabel keeping in step with her. All three girls remained unaware of the stares everyone was giving them, the girls in jealousy and the guys in want, and everyone in more than a little awe. They had gotten used to that a long time ago. Maria reached the locker and wrenched it open. “One,” she repeated, “admitting that Michael is my soulmate to you two is one thing, having the moron basically stamp ‘property of Guerin’ on my forehead is another. Two, how the hell could he kiss me like that and then just walk away?” “Poor Maria,” Isabel said in mock-pity. “Did my sweet wittle bwother weave you all hot and bothered.” “We’ll talk about how much you like this when it’s your turn Isabel,” Maria said as she slammed the locker shut. “Now to the important stuff. We all are teacher’s assistants for Ms. Marks this period right?” The two other girls nodded. The three of them had begged the crazy art teacher for months last spring to get the woman to let them all three help her in her free period as opposed to taking an actual class. “Good,” Maria said with a grin, “cause she’s still in Italy. Her flight was delayed a couple of days so she’s not here and the substitute didn’t know about us so she won’t be in until next period. That gives us free reign of the art room and time to talk. You,” she said with a pointed look at Tess, “have something to tell us I believe.” “Oh hell yeah,” Tess said as she opened her locker and shoved her pompoms inside. “I definitely have something to tell you guys. Shall we?” “Just a sec,” Isabel said as she crammed her own pompoms in her locker and grabbed a leather journal. “Ok,” she said with a serious expression on her face, “let’s go.” “Spill,” Isabel said once they were inside the deserted art room. “You went into the twilight zone right in the middle of breakfast. What the hell did you see?” “That’s what I want to talk to you guys about,” Tess said with an irritated eye roll. Sometimes Isabel could be just a little too…what word was she looking for…oh yeah…overbearing. “I didn’t see anything really, I just got impressions of things.” “But you’re a seer,” Maria said in confusion. “You aren’t an empath. You don’t get impressions, you get visions.” “Thus the problem,” Tess said in a confused tone of her own. “We’ve always known that things would grow and change once we got older and began to reach full power. Well evidently for me that means feeling the future as well as seeing it. And, this time I didn’t see anything at all. I felt it, and whatever it was it told me that we would need to keep Kyle close, as close as possible.” “Close as in ‘keep your friends close and you’re enemies closer’?” Isabel asked as she sat on the corner of one of the tables and leaned closer to Tess, who was now pacing furiously. “Or close as in protective close?” “Close as in ‘I don’t know’ close,” Tess said in exasperation. “This isn’t exactly a perfected science Iz. It doesn’t give me absolutes, you know that.” “That’s for sure,” Maria said dryly. She knew she had to break the tension growing in the room. “Remember that time you told me you foresaw Alex winning a contest back in middle school?” “I’d forgotten about that,” Isabel said with a fond grin as she began to giggle. “God he ran around for weeks entering every single contest he could find.” “Didn’t win a single one,” Tess said with her own giggle. “Until you made up that contest and pretended that he won it.” She grinned at Isabel. “I still don’t think he realizes that you did it.” Isabel shrugged, but the grin stayed on her face. “I’m sorry,” Tess said after a moment. “I didn’t mean to snap.” “I’m sorry Tess,” Isabel said as she stood up and put an arm around the small girl. “I didn’t mean to get all pushy either. Do you feel up to telling us what you felt?” “Nothing specific, it never really is. I just got the feeling that Kyle would be important to us later, really important and that we have to keep him close and safe. I didn’t get any notion of danger off of him, which we know one of us would have in a heartbeat if he were a threat. All I know was that I got a momentary feeling of the future, our future, and it said that Kyle was a definite part of it.” “You guys don’t think that he’s one of us do you?” Maria asked as she stared off into space. “No,” Isabel said firmly. “I would have sensed if he was a witch. I know when others like us are around. No, Kyle’s not a witch, but he’s different isn’t he?” “I think so,” Maria said as she turned back to them. “I don’t know what kind of vibe he’s been giving off, but he’s giving off one, a familiar one at that. I don’t know, I just think that we can trust him, that somehow he’s connected to us…all of us. But I don’t get any sense of danger off of him, at least none directed toward us.” “Yeah,” Isabel said with an impish grin. “Though I was definitely detecting some danger back at Jolie’s when Grant was staring at Tess like she was the menu. He was almost as bad as Michael.” “He was not,” Tess said with a blush. “Besides,” she said in confusion, “why would he care that Grant was checking me out?” “Duh Tess,” Maria said with a wink at Isabel. “He wants you to be his love slave. You know, for an outsider, he sure was doing the whole ‘she’s mine’ thing perfectly. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an outsider get like that so quickly before.” “Yeah well,” Isabel said as the bell rang and they made their way out of the classroom and towards the English Hall, “I thought we already decided that Kyle wasn’t a normal outsider…hell…I bet he doesn’t stay an outsider for long. After all, you can’t keep secrets from soulmates, and well…Tess isn’t the world’s best liar usually.” “Soulmate?” Tess stopped walking and looked at Isabel in horror. “What the hell are you talking about?” “Please,” Maria said with a wicked laugh, “what in the world do you think the instantaneous connection was signifying. You can only do that if you are a connector like Isabel, which you aren’t, or if the person is your soulmate. Come on,” she said with a pitying look at her pale friend, “I feel your pain. But at least yours isn’t Michael Guerin. Mom loves him, but as her daughter’s soulmate…she’s going to hit the roof.” “Poor Michael,” Isabel and Tess said at the same time and then laughed. “I’d hate to have Amy Deluca coming after me,” Isabel finished with a shiver. Maria’s mom, though usually sweet like her daughter, was a holy terror when it came down to those she loved, and she loved no one like she did Maria. The three girls laughed again and giggled their way to English class, which they were sharing with Michael and Alex. “Who’s that?” A brunette girl asked Courtney Boyd as the ‘Royal Trio’ made their way past them. “That is Isabel Guerin, Maria Deluca, and Tess Harding,” Courtney said with a sneer. “Otherwise known as ‘The Royals’. Don’t worry about them,” she added to the new girl she was being forced to show around. “And stay away, they might decide they don’t like you and…” Courtney’s voice trailed off, “and well, that’s never a good thing. They’re …” The last of her comment was lost in the noise of the busy hallway as she simply left the girl standing on her own alone. The girl looked again after the ‘Royals’ who had just entered a classroom at the end of the hall, leaving a wake of gawking people in their path. Had her guide just referred to them as witches? Maybe she hadn’t heard the other girl correctly…maybe she had said bitches. “Just who I was looking for,” a voice said from behind the new girl. She turned and smiled as she threw her arms around a tall guy with dark hair and eyes. “Hi Max,” Liz Parker said to her boyfriend. “I think I might have found something else you’ve been looking for. Let’s head to English shall we?” TBC

Part 9