"Oh... Okay, fine, if it's just... beers..." he mumbles, grabbing his jacket.
"Thanks!"
We watch him leave, and I frown, turning to her.
"What is it? Kelsi, we can't leave now, if I'm caught outside again..."
However, before I can even finish my sentence, she shakes her head and pulls her phone out, taking the seat next to mine to show me.
"Don't worry, we are not going out. I just wanted to show you this without Ben listening. He's cute, but he's a real snitch and I think he basically tells them everything we say..."
"He's cute?" I repeat, amused.
Kelsi blushes and slaps my shoulder with an annoyed expression.
"Mara, seriously! I'm trying to be serious right now and you're making fun of me?"
"Come on, you're the one who said it. Okay, okay, never mind. So, what did you want to show me? Is it about the fire?"
"No, remember the list the library girl sent me? I received it when I got back here, and while you were in the shower, I went through it."
I had forgotten about that list! I look at her screen; she has several tabs open on a public library website.
"The first two I searched were about witches, so you were definitely looking into that... The third one is a bit more concerning."
I need to squint my eyes to read the red letters on the black cover of the book, but I realize it's in a different language. I turn to Kelsi.
"What is that supposed to be?"
"It's an old book, forbidden for sale and printing in a lot of countries. There are a whole bunch of scary restrictions on it I did not even know existed until now. I looked it up, the university library apparently had an old foreign version of it. I translated the title. It reads, ‘The Forbidden Art of Necromancy, Blood Witchcraft, and Chthonic Circles’.
I shiver. A book about fucking necromancy? Why the hell was I researching this…? I turn to Kelsi, and she's making a pretty sour face too.
"You're telling me this was only the third book, and it's about messing with the dead?"
"Yeah. I'll bet we are not going to like the rest of what is on this list..." sighs Kelsi.
Chapter 9
"...You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"
I snicker. Ben is on his ass and blowing on his arm with a sullen look. I think I'm getting the hang of this, and liking it. Kelsi sighs on the side.
"I don't know if Mara's fighting abilities are amazing or if they gave us the worst bodyguard ever..."
"Hey, she has freaking fire! I can’t just ignore that like Selena!" protests Ben. "This is cheating, you should learn to control your fire, not roast my eyebrows!"
I can't help but chuckle. Truth is, I'm getting better at fighting, but the more heated I get, the higher chances are I'll ignite my fire without thinking. After Ben taught me all the basics, I caught on quite quickly. I appear to have very good reflexes, and my foreseeing thing is happening more and more often. The only thing is that it's only short-term, so I have a few seconds to understand what I just heard or felt before it actually happens. I often dodge on the wrong side or do some really weird moves thinking I'll avoid a kick that never came.
We use the parking lot as our fighting ground, though it usually means other werewolves come to watch us. They are not threatening in any way, though. They only watch from afar and leave as soon as Ben and I go back inside.
To my surprise, my sister didn't freak out as much about the fire at the university as she did about my pictures being leaked online. She raised an armada of lawyers to get that issue settled quickly, and all traces of me disappeared off the Internet as fast as they showed up. Amy didn't even bother to come see me, though... again.
"Mara, come and read this."
I frown. After we finished going through the full list of books, though we did grimace at some titles, Kelsi suggested we gather those we could to study them. We only found three books so far, and although the first one gave me a headache on dark concepts of magic, hell depths, lists of numbers, demons, and biblical stuff and such, Kelsi found it fascinating. I think it appealed to her inner geek so much that she has been taking notes for a while now and refused to part with it once we got downstairs to fight.
I grab a towel to soak up my sweat and look over her shoulder. She shows me an image with an illustration of a large circle.
