Pinnacle Page 2

  She looked into those same eyes now and he sighed in defeat.

  “Only a few people can see the yellow. The fact that you can tells me you’re different. I think it is also one of the reasons we’re so drawn to each other. I’ll share mine if you share yours. I’ll even share mine first if it’ll make you feel better,” he said sincerely.

  “OK, Kenneth, maybe you’re right.”

  “I’ll come back later tonight and pick you up. Make sure it’s OK with your aunt, all right? Everything is going to be OK. Whatever is going on with you, we’ll get through it together. See you later, Kays.”

  He ran his fingertips down the side of her face, then left. Kaya wished she knew what was going through his mind because the way he had looked at her had put her on edge just the slightest bit. She was still standing in the middle of the front landing when Di came through the door, looking over her shoulder. Her voice broke Kaya’s deep thoughts.

  “Kay, how long was Kenneth here?”

  “Only a few minutes. He came by to check on me. He wants to see me tonight because he says there is something he needs to share with me, something I need to know if we’re going to be together,” Kaya told her absently.

  “Hmm, you two are getting serious, aren’t you? Give me a hand with these groceries, will you?” Di said as she brushed past Kaya.

  “What makes you say that?” Kaya asked just a little more defensively than she’d intended.

  “Kay, I just know these things. If Kenneth wants to share a secret with you, then he is as serious as a heart attack.”

  “OK Di, spill it. What do you know? And don’t you dare say nothing,” Kaya said resentfully.

  “It’s not my place to tell you that boy’s family history, so you are just going to have to wait. And yes, you can go with him tonight.”

  Kaya gave her aunt a sideways glance. She hated it when Di got that all-knowing, smug and superior tone in her voice. Didn’t she realize it was condescending, not to mention totally offensive? Kaya felt her metaphoric hackles rise and had to mentally steel herself to keep from flying off the handle. She didn’t have time to worry about her aunt’s self-righteous antics. After all, they were on a time schedule. Kaya was in desperate need of getting her powers under control. She couldn’t keep missing school forever.

  “Whatever. Anyhow, my dad came and visited me in my sleep today, or rather last night, and was giving me lessons on my morphing,” Kaya said, irritated.

  She had said it with complete control, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Kaya knew Di would lose her marbles with that statement and she wasn’t terribly far off. She knew it was petty, but she felt she’d just evened the score board between herself and her aunt. Di was not the only one who knew how to get a rise out of someone.

  “Say what?” Di half squealed.

  Kaya chuckled on the inside and felt real amusement for the first time since her manifestation. Kaya cast a devilish grin at her aunt. Di gave her a critical look and Kaya laughed.

  “I know it sounds crazy, Di, but it was him. I feel like I have a handle on my ability now, but I wanted you here before I tried anything. So, do you have a moment?”

  “Yea, but let’s take this up to your room, OK?” Di said, looking around at her numerous breakable belongings.

  For the second time in less than five minutes, Kaya found herself laughing. It wasn’t every day her aunt wore anything but a smile.

  “All right, I’ll meet you upstairs. I’m just grabbing a pot of water,” Kaya said, disappearing through the doorway to the laundry room just off the kitchen.

  “Why on earth do you need that?” Di asked bewildered

  “You’ll see in a minute.”

  Kaya thought a stock pot was about the size she needed. She grabbed one and filled it. It was heavier than she’d thought it would be, so getting up the stairs was a chore.

  “Are you ready, Di?” Kaya said as she walked into the bedroom and set the pot down with a thud.

  “As ready as I can be.”

  “Well, here goes nothing!”

  Kaya closed the door and changed into a mallard duck. She waddled to the stock pot and jumped in. Di was laughing in Kaya’s mind. Before Kaya could change into her next animal, she found herself hopping back out of the stockpot and waddling over to Di.

  “What are you doing?” Kaya demanded irately. That’s what she found herself quacking anyway. No matter. She knew Di understood her.

  Di laughed at Kaya in her telepathic way. “Well, aren’t you the prettiest duck ever!”

  “Stop it, Di! I need to make sure I have this right before tonight! Release your hold on me!”

  “In a second, I promise.” she said out loud, reaching out for Kaya.

  “No, right now!” Kaya shouted at her.

  Kaya changed form and Di was staring at herself. Kaya looked exactly like Di and could tell it unnerved her.

  “Oh boy, so you are not just limited to animals,” Di said, stunned.

  “If you’re done toying with me, can we get back to what we came up here for,” Kaya asked, still furious.

  “Uh, yeah, Kay, sure thing.”

  Kaya changed back into the mallard, waddled to the stockpot, and jumped in. A goldfish was her next choice. She swam around happily before turning back into the mallard and hopping out of the pot to assume her Human Form.

  “Well, it looks to me like you got it under control, Kaya.”

  “Yea, I think I do. Can you help me with the manipulation?”

  “The best advice I can give you for both of your gifts is to be calm in both your emotions and your thoughts when you try to use them. Give it a shot. Try to move your jewelry box from your dresser to the bed.”

  Kaya focused on the jewelry box and tried moving it off the dresser. It moved all right, into her mirrored closet door. She was about to start ranting when Di spoke.

  “Kaya, you are still upset with me for messing with you. You need to clear that out. Balance your emotions and thoughts. That way your frustration is not the driving force behind your power. Try again with the bowl of beads.”

  Kaya took a deep breath and let go of her resentment. She tried again. The bowl shook on the dresser, but then lifted off the wood. It floated unsteadily across the room and landed with a plunk in Di’s lap.

  “Much better. Now try to put it back on the dresser.”

  Kaya tried again with the bowl. It rattled around and lifted off Di’s lap. The journey from the bed to the dresser was much smoother.

  “That’s the way, Kay. Just remember practice makes perfect, and levitation works the same way.”

  Di went downstairs, leaving Kaya alone with her thoughts. Kaya’s emotions reflected the absolute sense of accomplishment she felt. She had a strong hold on her powers. Feeling like she’d succeeded in that arena, she redirected her thoughts to something much more troubling. Kenneth. It was possible she wouldn’t get through the upcoming evening and still be able to call herself Kenneth’s girl. She couldn’t imagine what she’d do if he walked away from her forever.

  2

  Fight or Flight

  The O’Connell Estate

  Kaya’s heart was pounding inside her chest like a convict trying to escape the cell. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and let go of Kenneth’s hands. They had arrived at Kenneth’s family estate just a little while ago. After small talk and strolling through the stables of the O’Connells' champion-bred horses, they found themselves behind the stables. Kaya had related to Kenneth’s love for horses by telling him about her own horse, Tilly, a palomino Kaya’s aunt in Washington was taking care of.

  Kaya backed away from Kenneth until she was sure she was at a safe distance. When she opened her eyes, he regarded her quizzically.

  “What are you doing?”

  She took one last deep breath to steady her rioting nerves before she answered him. “Just wait, Kenneth.”

  Kaya closed her eyes again and remembered the last time Tilly and she had been o
ut riding. She recalled the movement of Tilly’s muscles, the sound of her hooves beating against the ground, the feel of Tilly’s mane brushing against her face, the smell of the air at a full gallop. She knew it was too late to turn back when she heard his surprised gasp. Kaya had taken an identical form to Tilly. She lifted her heavy head to steal a look at what she was sure would be a look of horror. Only what she saw wasn’t horror or even shock. He just stood there grinning from ear to ear.

  “Now that was what you were so worried about? Well now, that wasn’t so bad was it?” Kenneth said, half laughing.

  Kaya pawed the ground with her right hoof, tossed her head to the left, and sent her mane flaring out. He started laughing and Kaya knew everything would be OK. She sauntered up to him and brought her head down to rest on his shoulder. He patted and rubbed the side of her neck. Kaya took a few steps back and he got worried. He pulled three sugar cubes out of his pocket and held them out to her. Kaya wished she could have talked, but instead, she concentrated on her natural self and changed back.

  “Seriously, Kenneth, you’ve got to be kidding me! Sugar cubes? Tilly likes apples! Hello! Tilly and I are from the apple state!” Kaya said with mirth.

  The relief she felt was so great she couldn’t help but have a smile plastered on her face. She had expected him to be revolted, but he wasn’t even taken aback. It was like he was mildly surprised, but not enough to put the slightest hitch in his step.

  “So do you still want to be with this freak show?”

  He took three long strides toward Kaya, put his arms around her waist, and kissed her.

  “Is that a yes?” she asked surprised.

  “It is,” he said, smiling down at her.

  “Kenneth, I am not done sharing yet I only lead with this because, honestly, I thought it was the most unbelievable.”

  “There’s more?” he asked, somewhat shocked.

  “Yes, the morphing is my ability passed down from my dad and I should not even possess it, but I will explain that later. I also have two gifts that I inherited from my mother’s side of the family.”

  “Is a horse the only animal you can turn into?”

  Kaya thought it was an odd question, but answered anyway. “No, I can turn into any animal.”

  He looked a little disappointed, but recovered quickly and caught Kaya completely off-guard with his next question.

  “You can’t do what your aunt can do with animals can you?”

  He actually seemed worried. Kaya wondered how on earth he knew about Di’s gift with animals. The shock of him knowing about her aunt in the first place must have registered on Kaya’s face because he told her it was a long story.

  “We can get to your gifts in a minute, OK? Let’s take a walk, Kays.”

  Kenneth took Kaya’s hand and led her away from the stables and into the clear, cool night. They walked until all Kaya could see in any direction was pasture. The ambient light from the house was completely out of sight and the stars popped out at them like silver glitter on black felt. If not for her harried emotions and sweaty palms, it would have been the perfect romantic setting.

  His hand was warm in her’s and she loved how it made her feel. She glanced up at his face and realized there was not a single thing he could share with her that would make her want him any less. Kenneth was an extremely sought-after guy by girls in their sleepy little town. Kaya didn’t fault them for that. Kenneth was gorgeous with his black hair and haze-grey eyes. His whole family was Irish in the truest sense. His skin was fair, but carried the sun-kissed tint of time spent in the hot Oklahoma summers. Kenneth had gotten his height of six feet from his father, Owen.

  Owen was a successful livestock tycoon, possibly the largest in Oklahoma. The O’Connells had the largest Angus herd in the state, not to mention their champion-bred horses. Kenneth led Kaya through the pasture a few minutes longer, taking his time as they headed toward where they were going. When they stopped, he faced her, released her hand, and started walking away.

  “Kenneth?” Kaya called in question, bewildered by his sudden withdrawal.

  Kenneth said nothing, walked a few more steps, and then stopped. He got down on all fours and made the most gut-wrenching sound. Alarm rose up from Kaya’s core at his obvious agony. She started toward him in a panicked rush.

  “NO Kays, don’t take another step, stay where you are,” Kenneth demanded and had her stopping dead in her tracks. He bucked to the right, then stumbled to the left before he found his center and balanced out. His hands clutched the long prairie grass as if he was fighting against a tornado to stay on the ground.

  Kaya took a few more short strides toward him, her heart sick with worry, when he issued a rumbling growl that escalated to a howl. She watched in horror as his arms elongated to unbelievable lengths. Seconds later, the rest of his appendages took on the same process, lengthening and broadening at an unbelievable rate of speed. It was more than just getting bigger; the shape of him was taking on a new form.

  Fur sprouted from his pores, sleek and black. Kaya watched in the pearly cast of moonlight as his transformation continued. She didn’t know exactly what his ending form would be, but it was going to be enormous, so she stood speechless as his hands became large paws equipped with razor-sharp claws. The howl from just seconds before came slamming back into her mind.

  Moments before the transformation was complete, she knew what he was turning into. He yipped at her, but she couldn’t understand what he was trying to say. She knew then why her horse trick hadn’t even fazed him. Kaya walked to him and reached her hand up to his lower chest, which was at her eye level, and morphed into a timber wolf. Kaya hoped she would be able to understand his yips in this form. This line of thought made perfect sense to her. After all, dogs of all different species understood each other, she believed, wolves would be no different. She sat on her haunches beside him and felt like a trinket in comparison.

  “Kenneth, it’s not a full moon.”

  “Oh, that’s cool! I can understand you, Kays. What does a full moon have to do with anything?” he asked in a disapproving tone.

  “Aren’t you a werewolf?”

  “No, Kays, I am not a werewolf,” he said sounding a little annoyed and a lot offended.

  “You’re not just able to morph because no breed of wolf is that big, I mean, you are gigantic! You’re as big as a draft horse, Kenneth!”

  “I’m a Lycan, not a werewolf. Werewolves are a myth, Kaya. I can control when I change and the phases of the moon have nothing to do with it. A normal bullet will kill me just as fast as a silver bullet. We are mortal. We do have a longer life span, but still mortal all the same. Wolfs bane is one of my favorite flowers. Well, the purplish-blue ones, so obviously it has no adverse effects. Above all, I do not partake in Gnáth blood. We are not bloodthirsty, and eating Gnáths goes against our moral fiber. It just so happens that my particular animal is a wolf. It is the only animal I can assume the characteristics of, either fully or partially. I was born this way. This is my family’s secret. We are all like this. Well, all of us except my mother. She was as normal as they come. This trait is my father’s bloodline.”

  Kenneth fell silent and Kaya wondered what he was thinking, how he felt. Did he feel anxious and unsure of himself? Was he so nervous that he felt like he just might throw up because of the silence between them? That was precisely what she was experiencing and his facial expressions, the way he shifted from paw to paw, made her feel like maybe he was too. So now that you know what my secret is, you OK with it?”

  Kaya felt a sense of relief settle over her as they sat there alone in the empty moonlit pasture, yipping and barking back and forth.

  “We can be a freak show together,” she said in good spirits.

  Kenneth visibly relaxed at her comment, relieved she hadn’t run away. But then why would she? Hadn’t she just done something equally unbelievable just a short time before?

  “Does it hurt you like that every time you change?” She wante
d to know.

  “Nope. I purposely slowed the transformation down so you could gradually see what was happening. Under normal circumstances, the change is almost instant. It only takes a few moments, much like you when you changed. Slowing it down like I did is excruciating. It is the difference between ripping off a bandage from a hairless arm and slowly pulling it off. Don’t worry your pretty little head over it though. I am never taking it down to that speed ever again.”

  He lowered his massive head to her considerably smaller one and attempted to nuzzle her nose. Instead he knocked her over.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, Kays!” he said, half laughing.

  He picked her up by the nape of the neck; much like a mama wolf would with one of her pups, and set her back on her paws.

  “So are you ready to show me the other two gifts?”

  “I don’t know if I can use them in this form,” she said thoughtfully.

  It had never even crossed her mind to see if she could use her ability in conjunction with her gifts. The thought had excited anticipation coursing through her.

  “Well, you never know unless you try,” he said encouragingly.

  Kaya concentrated on a nearby rock, willing it to move. Nothing. She sat there looking quite disappointed. Somewhere deep down, she had hoped it would work.

  “Yeah, I have to change back. I can’t do it in this form.”

  She changed back to herself. The morphing was starting to feel like second nature. She barely even had to think about it. Once again, Kaya concentrated on lifting the rock off the ground. It did exactly what she wanted.