Treasured Secrets (The Coveted Saga #1) by C.M. Owens

  Chapter 9

  Changers

  It's amazing at how much better you can see when you open your eyes.

  School finally ended, and Tallis was waiting on me when I walked to my locker. McKee and Taryn walked up.

  "Hey, Aria, we were just going to tell you that we we're going to follow you home today. I didn't see your car outside though." McKee paused. He was talking to me but he was staring at Tallis. "I thought maybe you might want to catch a ride with us."

  I looked at Tallis, hopeful he was going to join in and object to that for me. He didn't let me down.

  "I'll take her home. I put her crest in my car. so you don't have to follow her. Everett said earlier that he would walk us out to the car, so we should be good." Tallis put his arm around my waist possessively.

  I smiled, but then McKee made that smile vanish very abruptly. "I was talking to Aria. I don't remember saying your name."

  He was angry, or jealous, or maybe he was both.

  "I couldn't tell, since you were staring right at me." Tallis's comeback was quick and spoken with layers of threatening tones.

  "I don't take my eyes off of a Craymon when they're around. It's bad enough that our coven let you sleep at their house, but now they're letting you touch her?"

  I could see the glowing red anger racing violently through McKee's brow. He wanted a reason to fight with Tallis.

  I had to interject and stop the fight before it started. McKee was looking for any reason to turn my family against Tallis. My tone was slightly more scolding than I had planned on it being. It seemed as though my frustration with McKee grew as I spoke.

  "Stop it, McKee. This is ridiculous. He takes care of me. I'm safe as long as I'm with him. There's nothing more important to my family than my safety."

  Tallis had been there for me when I needed him most. I wasn't going to let McKee put him down without stepping in.

  "Whatever."

  McKee rolled his eyes and motioned for his sister to follow him as he walked away. He wasn't going to let this go easily though. I knew there would be more confrontations between the two of them.

  Everett met us outside and walked us to the car. Tallis opened my door, and then we headed back to my house. The drive was nice with the wind in my hair. I looked to the right and saw a brilliantly white horse. I started to say something, but then I saw Tallis wave at the horse.

  I playfully teased him. "Friend of yours?"

  He smiled and started pulling over on the side of the road, and spoke in a bit of a mysterious sort of way. "He's more like a brother to me."

  He hopped out, and then he bent over, sounding insistent when he said, "Stay in the car for a minute, please."

  "Stupid essence," I growled.

  I said it loud enough for Tallis to hear apparently, because he snickered. I hated having to stay confined by bodyguards or protective crests. I missed being able to just take a walk by myself.

  Tallis walked back beside the horse. The horse snorted and suddenly started bucking. I was worried it was going to hurt Tallis. Tallis didn't seem afraid at all though. Of course, he was built to withstand almost anything, given that he was an immortal or an eternal or whatever.

  Tallis's tone was threatening in a seemingly playful way. "Don't do it. I mean it." Tallis talked to the horse as if it could understand him.

  Suddenly, the horse charged. It was running full speed directly toward the car, more specifically, me.

  I screamed, "Tallis!"

  But Tallis didn't move. It looked like he was rolling his eyes. The horse got to the car and suddenly changed into a solid white owl. I gasped very loudly. I couldn't believe it. I blinked at least a hundred times in less than five seconds.

  Tallis rolled his eyes again and picked up a set of clothes lying on the ground. He threw them at the owl, knocking it into the backseat. I screamed again as I scrambled around in the car, trying to get away from the bird.

  Tallis jogged over to the car. I heard a distinctively peculiar noise - like wind stirring in a barrel. I heard Tallis trying to warn me.

  "Aria, don't-" It was too late though. I turned around before he finished his sentence. Tallis dropped his head, shaking it slightly as he uselessly finished his sentence. "Turn around."

  I squealed, shocked and mortified. There was Desmond, stark naked in the backseat. I almost gave myself whiplash from jerking my head violently back toward the front with my eyes closed so tightly that it almost hurt. I could feel the red burning on my face. Desmond was laughing hysterically.

  "Good to see you, Aria."

  He wasn't the seething brute he had been to me before the meeting with my family. I almost wish he still detested me just as furiously as he had. Now he was scarring me for life. I could hear him pulling on his pants as the belt clanked around. He still chuckled at my embarrassment.

  I kept the side of my face shielded with my hand so that I didn't see anything else as I replied with sarcasm. "It would've been good to have seen less of you, Desmond."

  I heard Tallis laughing as he neared. Desmond was laughing at my little joke, too.

  "It's better than anything you'll see on his body," Desmond playfully teased.

  I heard a slapping sound. I could only assume Tallis had just popped Desmond for his crude comment. I certainly wasn't turning around to see if I was right or not. I wanted to wash my eyes out with soap.

  My mind went to all the wrong places as I thought of the tidbits of Tallis I had seen.

  "I've liked what I've seen of his body so far."

  I was thinking about him with his shirt off the day before. He had such a perfectly sculptured, lean piece of art. Then I noticed that Tallis was blushing. My face paled when I realized I had said that out loud. I ducked down slightly in the front seat, wishing I had something to put over my head.

  Tallis smiled at me bashfully. Then Desmond embarrassed me even more.

  "So... How much of his body did you see last night?"

  "Des!" Tallis yelled before slapping his own forehead, exasperated.

  Desmond jumped out of the car and changed back into a owl as Tallis swatted at him. He fell out of his clothes as he did so, and they collapsed onto the asphalt.

  Tallis walked back to the car, picking up Desmond's clothes out of the road. He tossed them in the backseat as he opened the door. He looked at me sort of sheepishly, grimacing after a second.

  "Sorry about that. Des has his moments when he… Well, he's just an ass."

  I laughed, still slightly mortified about my rogue confession.

  "I have two brothers and two sisters. Explanations for family humiliation is so not necessary." I smiled as he laughed.

  "Good to know." He put the car in gear and started in a different direction than what we had been going.

  I was unaware of any changes to the plan. "Where are we going?"

  "We're going to my house first. I want you to meet some of the changers. I forgot they're meeting today."

  "I wish I had dressed better." I looked down at my blue jeans and T-Shirt. It wasn't exactly going to make a good first impression.

  His head tilted and his eyes locked with mine as he spoke in his smoldering tone. "You look pretty amazing to me."

  I blushed fiercely, and started to squirm directly after.

  "Can you change?"

  I hadn't given it much thought. I knew he could blow stuff up, but he was half witch, half changer.

  He smiled. "No, I tried for a while though. Des would tackle me or punch me in the arm and change while he was jumping out the window. Very frustrating."

  I snickered slightly at the small scowl on his face. Then he smiled. "When I learned to control my power, things changed. He would fly away, and I'd use enough power to break a branch to land on him. Once I broke a whole tree over on him."

  I looked at him oddly while gasping. He recognized my quizzical face. "Don't worry. I didn't hurt
him. I did, however, blow out the window to his bedroom by accident. He got rained on for several days before it got fixed. That was nice."

  He sighed with a bit of pride. He seemed to be reminiscing about those events like they were some small victories.

  "I guess my siblings aren't so bad after all."

  He let a louder laugh escape.

  "Things will change when you get your powers. You find ways to amuse yourself when you've lived as long as we have."

  I looked at his face. It was pristine and captivating. I could have stared all day.

  I was falling for him so fast. Every amazing detail about him drew me in closer. The wind continued to blow in my hair. He turned and smiled at me.

  "Are you going to be okay with this? I didn't think about it, but this might be pretty scary for you. You've had a lot thrown on your plate in two days. Maybe I should take you home first before I go to this. I could come over later, or just pick you up in the morning."

  I decided quickly that I could deal with any sort of crazy better than I could handle being separated from him.

  "No. I'm fine. I admit that it's a lot to process, but I'm good. I already know about changers, and I just saw your brother naked, so it can't get too much worse." I thought about that for a minute. "Oh no. They're not going to get naked in front of me, too, are they?"

  He laughed so hard that it turned into a cough. "No. They're a little more modest than Des. You're not meeting a band of naked men or anything." He smiled at me as we pulled into his driveway.

  "You probably need to call your grandma though. So she doesn't worry." Then he handed me his phone.

  I got off the phone and walked over to Tallis. "I hate to ask anything else from you, but Iris wants to meet them. I told her I would ask you first." He looked at me and nodded. Then he walked inside. He came back out with his father.

  "It should be fine for Iris to come. This alliance is important," Edmond answered, proving he was a bit of an alpha.

  "Thanks, Mr. Verdan. I'll call her back."

  I walked back down to the car and called Iris again, telling her the good news. When I returned, Edmond and Tallis were doing something to the side of the house.

  I spoke with an inquiring tone. "What are you guys doing?"

  Tallis was the one to respond, but he didn't look up. "We're putting up more of your protective crests. Bradbury's have strong magic, so the scent of their essences are very strong as well. The more we have, the safer you all are."

  Their precautionary measures were admirable. It made me feel safe. I stared at them as they pressed their palms against the house, then I heard a sizzling sound.

  "Are you burning something?" I couldn't smell anything. I could just hear the sound of something that sounded almost like bacon frying in a pan, just a little more subtle.

  "It's cresting. It's something you'll learn to do when you get your magic. It is similar to burning, minus the fire. There are a lot of things you can do when you get your magic. It's something you have to see and do to really understand."

  They finished up and then we headed inside to join Allaysia. She was preparing food and cocktails for the company. Tallis ran up some steps to go change. I wanted to change, too, but I had no clothes.

  "You need any help?" I asked. I didn’t know how to cook, not on a conventional stove anyway. But I thought I could set the plates or something for her.

  "Actually, could you stir this? I need to get the dessert ready to put in the oven."

  She pulled me to the pan and put my hand on the handle as she handed me a large wooden spoon.

  "Yeah… sure." I nervously stirred the pan that smelled heavenly.

  It was soup - a deliciously enticing soup. I was so worried I was going to mess it up.

  "Aria, if you're okay, I need to go finish getting ready. Could you take the soup off in about five or six more minutes?"

  "Yeah, no problem."

  I continued stirring. It was awkward. I worried about ruining her soup portion of the evening. Contemporary appliances made me feel a little out of my element. I had always heated soup out of a can on top of a fire. We had a wood burning stove back home, but it always made the hut so hot that we barely used it.

  I felt like such a roughneck around here.

  Tallis walked up behind me, surprising me a little. He was so close that our bodies grazed each other. Then he leaned into me, fully pressing his front to my back, as he reached over and put his hand on my hand, stirring the soup with me.

  "You have to go all the way around the pan. It'll burn around the edges, otherwise."

  His free hand was resting on my hip, and it just felt so right. I couldn't fight off the smirk as his head leaned over to the spoon and dipped out a bit to taste.

  "It needs salt and a bit of pepper, too." He was off to the cupboard then. He added the extra ingredients and then dipped out another spoonful to taste.

  He smiled big. "Perfect."

  I giggled at his expertise in the kitchen. Then he took it off the stove. I leaned against the countertop and spoke lightly.

  "How long do you think it will be before all the changers get here?"

  He looked out through the giant glass windows in the living room. He stared at a flock of birds who were all perched on the porch railing. "Most of them are already here."

  I was suddenly very puzzled by that. "I didn't hear any cars drive up."

  Desmond walked in, pulling on a sleeveless shirt. "That's because they didn't drive." Then he pointed to the birds that Tallis had been staring at.

  "Oh." My shoulders dropped slightly as I spoke somewhat comically. "Oh man. They are going to get naked."

  Desmond burst out into laughter as he doubled over and rested his hands on his knees. He bent down and started tying his shoes, still laughing as he did so. Then he looked up and spoke with the same comical tone I had carried. "Did I scar you for life, Aria?"

  "Pretty much." I shot him a playfully mean look with a slight grin.

  Tallis smiled as he spoke reassuringly. "Don't worry, Aria. They've got clothes. They'll change after everyone gets here. They just prefer being in their animal forms. It makes them feel safe."

  Tallis knew I really was worried about seeing more than I wanted to again. He took my hand as he led me away from the kitchen. He took me up the stairs to the second floor. He smiled as we entered a bedroom.

  It was a charcoal gray color with lighter gray squares painted all around the room. A very large king-size bed was draped with a brilliant pale blue comforter with a charcoal trim. He had so many pillows. They were everywhere.

  There was one wall of windows, and the other walls were littered with pictures of various countries from all over the world. He had been absolutely everywhere, it seemed. I found myself feeling slightly intimidated.

  His tone was warm as he spoke to me. "This is where I am when I'm not keeping you safe."

  His iridescent white shirt was unbuttoned slightly, showing off his navy blue T-Shirt underneath. His dark denim jeans were tailored to fit him perfectly, not too tight and not baggy at all. I hated baggy pants. I was glad he didn't follow that trend.

  He pulled my hand in his and walked me over to his bed. Then he laughed nervously.

  "This wasn't as awkward at your house last night." He scratched his forehead uneasily.

  "That's because it wasn't your room with your secrets. It was my room and my secrets," I playfully teased.

  He winked at me as he replied enticingly. "Yeah, I know all of your secrets."

  "Not all of them," I said, raising my eyebrows and smiling somewhat deviously.

  He laughed slightly. "I know most of them. I do a thorough job of studying the people I hang out with."

  My tone turned to a playfully serious one. "Well, then I guess I need to do some serious snooping so that I'm not at such a disadvantage." He laughed as he bounced onto his bed and pro
pped up on his side.

  I walked over and pulled a book off the shelf. I opened it up to see all kinds of writings. I tilted my head quizzically. "What's this?"

  He raised up a bit to answer me. "Oh, it's a book my mom gave me to learn about my heritage."

  There were hieroglyphic type symbols and all sorts of different words that I had never heard of. “What language is it?"

  "Mayan mostly, with various other dead languages mixed in. My family are very cryptic sort of people. I know more languages than I can count." He smiled so smugly.

  "Yeah, you got me there. I got nothing. I thought being bilingual was pretty good." I sat down on the edge of his bed, placing the book beside me. "So educate me."

  He let out a laugh before responding. "On what?"

  "On you." I smiled at him as I awaited his response.

  "What do you want to know exactly?" He scooted down to be beside me, putting his arm around my waist.

  "Everything I don't know." I crossed my left leg over his right leg and locked my eyes onto his, inviting him to make a move.

  His finger started drawing imaginary lines on the leg I had draped across him. "Okay. Well, you know that no seer can see me because of my changer half being immune and you know my essence can't be smelled, right?"

  "Yeah the whole half and half thing, they cancel each other out. You're lucky in that way."

  "I know, but you don't have it so bad. I like the way things are now, but before you, my existence was a secret. Who would have guessed that saving you would save me from a continued life of ostracism."

  I reached across and ran my fingers through his hair. He leaned into me, inviting my touch.

  "I wish I didn't have to live like a hermit. I like going and doing as I please. Now, I'm constantly guarded." I looked at him looking down. "I'm kind of happy that you're doing the majority of the guarding though. I guess the only time I really mind being guarded is when it's McKee instead of you. School today sucked."

  He raised his head up, smiling now. "Yeah, I'm not crazy about McKee guarding you either, but he has two classes with you. At least I've got an even amount of time with you. Two to two."

  My focus quickly shifted with that statement. "Why are you in school?" I had been meaning to ask him that, but I always got sidetracked.

  He laughed again. "I like to keep an eye out for new witches. They're always sixteen or seventeen when they come, depending on the allowance for guardianship and the strength of their blood. They're usually juniors or seniors. It's the best place to start looking.

  "My family and I have been guarding new witches for a while. You were the first one I had to reveal myself to though. I'm just glad that it gave me the opportunity to steal your attention from McKee." He winked playfully.

  "You didn't have to try to do that. You've had my attention since the first time I saw you. I'm glad it was you that stayed in my room." I blushed slightly, possibly being a little too brave with my words.

  He spoke with laughter in his tone. "Oh, I had no intention of letting McKee sleep in there. I would have kidnapped you before I let that happen." He reached over and kissed my hand.

  I sucked in a breath because it felt so good to have his incredibly soft lips touching my skin.

  "I'm glad you didn't."

  "I'll be there again tonight, too."

  I looked up, trying not to blurt out anything stupid. I was controlling my breathing so that I didn't sound overly excited. "How did you swing that?"

  "Your grandmother actually asked me to. She called me just a little while ago. She said she feels like you're safer with me there. I have to say that it made me feel pretty good. The fact I saved your life won me some brownie points. She trusts me a little more than she does McKee, since he lost his grip on you in the woods. The fact I can blow things up probably has something to do with it, too." He snickered smugly. "She wants me to stay with you as much as possible."

  I was kind of embarrassed by that. That made me feel like he was obligated to be with me. I didn't want that to be the reason he was staying with me.

  "Sorry. I didn't know about that."

  "Hey, it's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it," he joked.

  "You don't have to. I can get McKee to do it." I bit back my smile when his smug grin faded into a scowl.

  "I think I have it under control." Then he jumped to his feet and grabbed me up. I was being carried bridal style before I even realized it as we made our way over to the wall of open windows.

  I looked down at the large drop. "What are you doing?" I asked shakily.

  He grinned at me and raised his eyebrows. "The meeting should be over now. It's time for the fun stuff."

  I didn't realize what time it was. We had been talking for at least forty-five minutes.

  He stepped up on the window ledge. "You might want to hold on tight. And no, that's not a line."

  He winked and jumped out of the window. A gargled squeal slipped through my tightened lips. I was holding so tight that my knuckles turned white.

  He landed on his feet with me still delicately placed in his arms, barely even letting me feel jostled. I didn't want him to let me go, but he did.

  I looked around and spoke with a bit of guilt. "Sorry we missed the meeting. I didn't realize it had even started."

  He looked at me and touched my chin, leaning over to kiss the top of my head. "I missed the meeting on purpose. It was nice having you all to myself. The meetings are always the same anyway. Desmond will fill me in if there was anything new. I just wanted you to watch them duel. That's the fun part."

  My eyes widened with a bit of surprise. I wasn't sure how to respond to that, or if I even heard him correctly. "Duel? That sounds dangerous."

  He laughed. "Not really. It's not like the wild west - take ten paces and shoot, or anything. Desmond is pretty good, but dad usually always ends up on the top of the podium. They set up a string of obstacles and they have to change all the way through it to get to the end. It's sort of a changer's version of the Olympics. We have a lot of newbies tonight, so it should be pretty interesting."

  I shrugged slightly. "Why?"

  "Because they have a hard time swapping from one animal to the next as effortlessly as the older ones."

  There was an oversized tree trunk that Desmond picked up and moved out of the way. Two birds flew high in the air, holding hoops. Then there was a giant wall of broken down trees. I still didn't understand what was going on.

  "Certain obstacles require different creatures. You'll be disqualified if you use an unapproved animal for certain obstacles. For instance, if there's a climbing obstacle, you can't use a bird to simply fly over it," Tallis said, continuing to explain some of the rules.

  I nodded softly, distracted by all the action going on.

  Desmond lined up with another guy, both of them standing behind a white line painted on the ground. Their shirts were off, but they were both wearing shorts... thankfully. A gunshot rang out, startling me a little.

  They jumped off their platforms and burst into monkeys. Their shorts fell to the ground, abandoned and forgotten, as they went to scale the wall in front of them. When they got to the top, they jumped and landed on their feet as fierce cheetahs.

  They were in a mad sprint toward two trees. Desmond turned into an elephant and the other guy turned into a grizzly bear. Desmond knocked his tree over first and changed to a bird to fly in a predetermined pattern through the hoops.

  The other guy followed him as soon as his tree fell. Desmond dropped to the ground as a fox before he ran through a tiny burrow in the ground. After a few seconds, he emerged from the other side. He dove into a pond, shifting into a fish before he slapped the water.

  He jumped out from the other side, turning into a panther, and within a breath, he was crossing the finish line. The other guy was at least fifteen seconds behind him.

  I noticed Ash watc
hing him with absolute tunnel vision. I hadn't even noticed my family before that moment.

  She saw me looking at her and waved at me. I waved back and her eyes quickly cut back to Desmond. She would've probably liked the little show I got earlier from Desmond.

  I shivered slightly as the embarrassing moment popped into my mind. My nose turned up.

  Tallis and I watched for a while. There was one up there who was kind of sad. The guy kept changing into a kitten and a chicken.

  "What's wrong with him?"

  Tallis tried not to chuckle. "He's still new. He's trying to change into a big cat sometimes and a bird at other times. He needs a little more practice." The guy finally crossed the finish line. As he ran across, he accidentally changed back to human.

  "Oh no. Another naked guy. Seriously?" I buried my head in Tallis's chest and he put his hand on the back of my head. I could feel his chest bobbing slightly as he laughed.

  "Sorry, Aria," he said while still laughing. "I guess they're not so modest after all."

  My stomach growled, and he looked down at me. "Let's go see if there's any soup left."

  "I don't want you to miss the games. It can wait." I was somewhat embarrassed by my grumbling guts.

  "It’s fine. I see this all the time. I'm hungry, too. We missed the food while we were in my room.” He took me by the hand and led me in.

  We sat at the bar and ate soup and little mini sandwiches. Ash came in and saw us sitting there.

  She smiled as she spoke to Tallis. "Can I grab a water?"

  Tallis shot up and grabbed a bottle of water before tossing it to her.

  "Thanks," she said while smiling.

  Tallis smiled back. "No problem."

  There was a small candle on the bar that suddenly lit up by itself just as Ash turned the lights off. I turned to glare at her but she winked at me.

  Tallis just shook his head while smiling. "Blazers. They always have to show off."

  I just laughed and enjoyed our makeshift candlelit dinner.