Hello everyone – thanks for stopping: ) I belong to a
short story writing group on GoodReads and I’d like to share one of my paranormal
stories – a favorite genre of mine. Hope you enjoy – White Raven
We met when I was
thirteen. The cool morning mist lifted off the water, my parents had already
launched to fish, and I was left tending the campsite. My book lay open on the
picnic table and I was totally absorbed in the paranormal romance of shifters
when a white bird the size of an eagle landed on the table in front of me.
It studied me,
cocking its head side to side, stepping to the right then the left of me.
Watching it watch
me might have been unsettling to someone else, but I found comfort with its
interest in me. I studied it right back;
a Raven, only white and a huge size, with deep purple eyes and dark lashes. So,
it wasn’t an albino.
“Where did you
come from? You’re amazing.” My words must have startled it because it stumbled
off the table, hitting the ground with a loud thud. I shot to the other side where
it lay unconscious. “You can’t die. I’m sure you’re one of a kind.” I touched
its soft feathered head. A tingle vibrated through my fingers and up my arm. The
bird shivered and its eyes opened. “Oh, my gosh, you’re alive.”
“And you, Lacey, are nothing like I was told
you’d be,” a masculine voice spoke inside my head.
I jumped back landing on my backside. My heart
beat erratic as I gasped for air. We stared at each other. “You just spoke
inside my head. You know my name.” I croaked the words, still working to breathe.
“What are you?”
* * *
Blaze glared at me
in the moonlight, his purple eyes glowed. “What are you doing? You’re supposed
to be practicing.” His straight white hair fluttered around his broad
shoulders, his lips pinched together. “You’re eighteen and should have full
access to your powers. Now is when you
need to be trained.”
We stood on the
edge of a Picture Rock cliff, he expected me to jump, gain my wings and fly.
Only I’d never flown on my own, even though I could make feathers appear
randomly on my body, it wasn’t like launching myself into the abyss of Lake
Superior just to prove I can’t fly. He swore the full moon would give me
insight on what would happen if I jumped off the cliff, but I definitely wasn’t
feeling it.
“Come on, Lacey.
Your parents were strong flyers, both of them. You’ve spent too much time with
the human family and lost your instinct to the Avian way.” He stepped closer,
his palm rubbed across my shoulder blade, warming my insides and making me feel
safe. “It takes a nice dose of adrenaline to get those natural abilities firing
through your system.” He shoved me and I tripped off the ledge.
The moonlit water was not my friend. I closed my
eyes. The rocks below would kiss me dead.
My body jolted
as his talons slipped around my upper arms.
I opened my eyes, his strong wings worked to save us from the crashing waves and
rocks.
He sighed. “Enough
for tonight, we’ll try something else tomorrow.” He flew toward the forest.
Blaze had
introduced me to the Avian race of people on my sixteenth birthday. They told
me that I looked like my mother, who I didn't remember. They also spoke of my
parents as royalty, which made me giggle. My parents had left me, a newborn, at
the campsite of a human couple. Perhaps to save me from the hunter that had
killed them. My human parents never
shared I wasn’t biologically theirs.
My ventures with Blaze and our people were in
secret. The more I learned about our kind, the more difficult it became to live
in the human world. Especially knowing my aging process had slowed, upon turning
eighteen I aged one year for every one hundred human years.
But perhaps part of my draw to the changeling
world was Blaze. He knew me like no other.
Blaze flew us deep
into the forest, where our people lived in a small village settlement far off
the beaten path, a place no human would ever consider living. He set me on my
feet outside his home then he changed into human form. He’d insisted as my
mentor and protector that I stayed with him.
“Maybe you should
change out of that tiny bathing suit.” His gaze wove a web of sparking prickles
from my chest to my toes and back again and then our gazes connected. Those
sparks on the outside of my skin scurried into my veins like a hyper-wave of lava. He stepped closer, his head
tilted toward me, breath brushing my lips.
I lifted my face
toward him, my heart spiraling, eyes closing.
He kissed my forehead.
“Go, change, sleep. We’ll start again tomorrow.”
My spiraling heart
dropped as if knocked-out with a punch. I opened my eyes and watched him walk
into the house, no need for lights with our excellent night vision.
My human mother came to mind. She had worried
about my deep teal colored eyes and the distance I could see…miles away. I
learned at ten years old to keep certain things to myself after running through
a ton of tests. Thankfully she kept me from becoming a lab rat. I never shared
my ultra-fine hearing or my ability to feel the minutest vibrations of insects
and small creatures.
Like now. Vibrations and sound, snapping
branches and twigs, I scanned into the forest at my left.
A gun fired. I saw the flame, fumes ripened the
air. I sensed the vibration of the bullet as it passed my shoulder and slammed into the side of Blaze’s home.
“Umph.” His groan echoed in my head, then a thud loud enough to be his
body.
My heart hummed, blood pumping through my veins
with force. I stretched tall, my body automated. My bones and muscles snapped
into a new place. I stared downward at talons instead of toes.
Another shot fired, again just missing me. My
wingspan freaked me out momentarily, wider than Blaze’s, and brindle in colored.
I lifted effortlessly into the air, soaring around tree branches, ascending then
diving, hearing the ragged breath of the hunter. He was reloading his firearm.
His look of surprise told me he’d never heard
my approach. I knocked him down, used my talons to grab his gun and snap the night
vision goggles from his face. The Avians swarmed overhead, all sizes, ascending
and lifting the unconscious hunter. With flying stealth, they carried him away.
I flew back to Blaze’s home; the door was open.
My body morphed into human form as soon as I landed. Arianna, the Avian medic,
was already leaning over his prone body, her glowing hands spread across his
abdomen.
“How is he?” I ran to his side. His eyes were
closed. “Is he unconscious?”
She stared at me with a look of awe. “You are the one.”
Not the response I expected, nor a clue on what
it meant.
Blaze shuddered, his eyes opened. “Lacey?”
“I’m here. It was a hunter. He’s been removed
from the area. How are you feeling?” I brushed a tendril of hair from his eyes.
My fingers vibrated at the touch of his skin.
Arianna slid her hands away and inspected the
area. A bullet clinked on the wooden floor. “Looks like you’re going to make it,
my King.”
My King? I’d
never heard anyone call Blaze that before.
“A little rest ought to finish the tissue
healing.” Arianna rose from the floor, pocketing the bullet, and reached out a
hand. I did the same and we both helped Blaze to his feet.
“What happened?” His eyes narrowed, brows
drawing inward.
“Your owling came into her own. She protected
first and foremost, like a true leader, my King.” Arianna bowed her head toward
Blaze, then to me, and said, “We’re honored by your presence.”
I shook my head in disbelief, not quite sure
what she was talking about. Nor why she was calling Blaze “my King.”
Blaze’s wide smile took my breath away, and as
his gaze connected with mine my brain
stopped considering anything else.
“You morphed?” He pulled me in, wrapping his
arms around me. I nodded. “You morphed,” he whispered.
Arianna clicked the door shut on her quick
exit.
Blaze tilted my chin up. “You have no idea how
long we’ve waited; I’ve waited. Your timing is perfect, my Queen.” He closed
the gap between our lips, crushing mine to his in a smolder of passion.
I held his face between
my palms, our chests pressed together and our heart rhythms matched as one. An owl
and a raven…
To see books by this author – check out author pages
below:
S. Peters-Davis BWL Publishing Inc. Author Page – http://bookswelove.net/authors/peters-davis-s-suspense-paranormal/
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