With one swift movement, Damien takes his off. Kayla’s eyes widen, because she wasn’t really expecting him to. “Here you go,” he chirps.
“Okay,” Kayla barely squeaks.
Jackson sighs, taking his shirt off. “You may as well wash mine too.”
All Kayla can think is, Dear Lord have mercy on me. “Okay.” Kayla gulps. “Let me go put these in the machine and I’ll shower.”
“Do you need help?” Damien quips.
“No, she doesn’t,” Jackson retorts, almost sharply.
Damien rolls his eyes. “I was joking. Really, Jackson?”
“Okay, I’m going now,” Kayla whispers, turning to walk away. She exhales and mutters under her breath, “I’m in trouble.”
Chapter 9
“Okay, what exactly does this training entail?” Kayla asks. “Do I turn into a dog and you pat me on the head?”
Damien laughs. “Yes, that’s exactly what we do. Good girl, good Kayla.”
“Shut up. I’ll bite you.”
“I only want that if you’re human. Dog bites suck.”
Kayla rolls her eyes. “Okay, what do I do?”
“Sit down,” Jackson instructs.
“Sit?”
He nods his head. “Yes, sit down. We need to find your balance before you jump headfirst into shifting.”
“All righty,” Kayla says, sitting on the floor of the living room.
Jackson and Damien follow her. They both cross their legs and look at her. Jackson asks, “Have you ever meditated?”
“Nope,” Kayla replies.
“Oh boy,” Jackson sighs. “Okay, close your eyes.”
She does and then opens one. “Now what?”
“Keep your eyes closed,” Jackson snaps. She closes them and waits. “Now, I want you to do what I say. Take in a deep breath and then exhale; deep breath and then exhale; deep breath and then exhale.” Kayla sort of follows his instructions, but she just wants to laugh. “Kayla,” Jackson sighs. “You need to be serious.”
“Wait,” Damien says. “I’ll do this.” He jumps up and walks over to Kayla. He sits down behind her. “Here, scoot back against me.” Kayla complies and Damien straddles his legs around her, pressing himself against her back. It makes Kayla all too aware of him being there. “Now,” he says, “close your eyes. Okay, deep breaths again.” Kayla inhales, but this time she can feel Damien breathing against her back.
They sit there for a few minutes regulating their breathing. “Okay,” Jackson says softly. “I want you to clear your mind. Totally empty it.” With the rhythmical breathing, Kayla easily relaxes. “Now, what I want you to do is feel your energy. It’s coursing through you all the time. Try to remember that feeling when you shifted. Don’t try to shift, just think of that energy.”
Kayla concentrates on what she is feeling. A blue light starts to shimmer in her vision. “What in the…I see light.”
“All right, that’s good,” Damien whispers gently behind her. “Now, concentrate on the light.”
As Kayla focuses, the light gets brighter and closer. Then it’s like it pulls her in. When she puts her arms up to resist, she realizes she can now see herself. A shining blue wave runs across her skin. Suddenly, she is sucked through the light and thrust forward on her hands and knees.
When she looks up, her breath vanishes. Light surrounds her, nothing else, just light. Kayla can’t see a floor, walls...anything. “Don’t freak out,” she hears from behind her.
She spins to find Jackson behind her. “What…where are we?” she asks.
“A different plane of existence,” Jackson replies. “This is where our energy sits.”
“Like heaven?”
Jackson laughs. “I don’t know. I haven’t been there yet. This is where you can come to replenish your energy. Sleep usually recharges us, but this can do it too. It also helps keep your energy in check so you don’t shift accidently. You’ll be doing this four or five times a day. If you feel like you may start to shift, you can sit down and meditate. It will help.”
“So if I’m in the mall, I’m supposed to sit down and meditate on the floor?” Kayla asks, trying not to giggle.
“That is why you won’t be out of the house for a week or so.”
Kayla reaches her hand out. “Can I touch you?”
He brings his hand out to meet hers. Their fingers touch and Kayla smiles. Jackson wraps his fingers through hers. “Yeah, you can touch anyone in here.”
“You can do…anything?”
“Mmhmm,” Jackson hums in reply. He stands there for a second just holding her hand. “Kayla…” he starts. “I…I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
She looks down. “It’s all right. I made a snarky comment.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Jackson whispers, stroking his thumb against her skin. “I can’t treat you that way.”
Stepping forward, Kayla brings him closer. “I just wish you would tell me why you fight it so hard.”
Exhaling loudly, Jackson states, “It’s complicated. One day I will tell you, if you don’t figure it out on your own.”
Suddenly, they hear, “See, you did it. Good job, Kayla!”
Jackson and Kayla quickly step back from each other. “Yeah,” Jackson almost spits out.
“Did you show her anything?” Damien asks.
“No, I thought that would be a little much for her first time.”
Kayla looks at Damien. “What do you mean show me?”
“Well, the cool thing about being here,” Damien says, “is that you can go wherever you want. You have to have been there before or have seen it.”
“It doesn’t actually take you to that place,” Jackson interjects. “It’s not a transporter, but you can create your own world.”
Confused, Kayla says, “I don’t get it.”
“Here,” Damien retorts. “I’ll show you.”
In an instant, trees surround them and Kayla recognizes that they appear to be in the woods outside her house. “This is weird.”
“It will be at first,” Jackson states. “We try to take baby steps, but obviously Damien wants to throw you in headfirst.”
“We're looking at what Damien wants to see. How does he control that? Can you overpower him?”
With a groan, Jackson answers, “No, he’s too strong, but let’s say, if you were going to do it right now, I would be able to overpower you.”
“So everyone comes to this plane of existence. Why aren’t we seeing anyone else?”
“It’s who you want to see,” Jackson replies. “We are all meeting here together.”
Kayla frowns. “So you don’t have any privacy?”
“Once you get stronger, you can block out whomever you want,” Jackson states.
Suddenly, Jackson disappears. Kayla shrieks and looks at Damien. He smiles in return. “Like he said, he can’t overpower me.”
“What? Where is he?” Kayla exclaims.
“I don’t know,” Damien replies. “Either sitting by himself here, or he snapped back into your living room.”
Kayla crosses her arms. “That is really rude.”
“It’s a male domination thing. He would do it if he could. I think we need a different view.” Suddenly the woods disappear and they are on a cliff. Ocean waves crash onto the rocks below them.
“Whoa!” Kayla yells, taking a huge step back. “Where are we?”
“On the shores of Ireland, I always find it serene and beautiful.”
Inching toward the edge, Kayla says, “Can I fall?”
“Not really, though if we could, Jackson would probably push me over the ledge.”
Kayla laughs. “Sometimes I think he would push me.”
“No, he likes you, Kayla, he really does. He lets himself get in the way.”
“Mmm, Jackson and I will get through this as long as nothing romantic happens between us,” Kayla murmurs, looking farther over the edge.
Damien walks up next to her. “Do you like Jackson in that way
?”
“I’m not allowed to.”
“That didn’t exactly answer my question. I do have true interest in you, Kayla. There are a lot of reasons why, but I won’t lie, some of it has to do with my family. I want to get that out there before we go any further. And I don’t really want to compete with Jackson if you have feelings for him.”
Turning to him, Kayla asks, “I don’t know what I feel for Jackson, apart from fury. What does your family have to do with it?”
“It’s your bloodline.”
She throws her hands up. “My stupid bloodline again. What about it now?”
Damien holds his hands behind him and looks out over the ocean. “I am of the council’s line, the Merjyet line. They want to keep that line as powerful as possible.”
“The Meeerrr what, huh?”
Laughing, Damien enunciates, “Merjyet, it’s what you would call the royal family.”
“Okay, I told you I’m bad at foreign languages. We’ll call it the Mer line,” Kayla mumbles.
“Fine. My family wants me to marry someone who is a powerhouse of our species.”
Kayla nods. “Because I can change into anything, they want you to marry me. Is that why you’re here?”
“That’s why they sent me, yes.” Damien sighs. He turns and looks at her. “Kayla, I didn’t come here with the expectation of marrying you. I came to appease my father and the council. They weren’t happy to find out that there was a girl in your bloodline they didn’t know about, let alone had no idea what she was.”
“Are my parents in trouble?” Kayla whispers, not hiding her worry.
“Not like you think. They were called before the council to explain themselves. The worst that would happen is that you would be taken away from your parents.”
Kayla’s eyes widen. “What! I can’t lose my family.”
“You wouldn’t lose them. They would still be your parents. You would just be under the protection and guidance of the council.”
“So I’d have to live with a group of strangers and learn how to become a bunch of animals? What about school? What about my life! I love my life here. I don’t want to go anywhere. Wait until I’m done with school and then take me to some alien college.”
Damien grabs her arms. “Listen, Kayla, if they put you with anyone, it will be me. I won’t make you go anywhere. You can stay here. I would not want to destroy your life. I only want to make it better.”
“What about Yale? You can’t put your dreams aside because of me.”
“If you are going to be an important part of my life, like I hope, then we will attend a college together. It’s my duty to see you through this. It’s my duty to the council and also to you.”
Kayla looks at him thoughtfully. “You’d do that for me?”
“Yes, if you would let me try. That’s all that I ask, is to try. I’m not asking you to kneel with me on the floor, I’m not tying your wrist with flowers, I am just asking for you to give me a chance.”
With a smile, Kayla says, “What would you be doing with my wrist?”
“For our species, proposing is asking the other person to get down on their knees. Whoever is proposing takes a string of flowers and wraps it around the other’s wrist. If that person accepts, the flowers will bloom to life. It is quite magical and beautiful. I’ve seen it twice.”
“That sounds perfect! How wonderful! What about rings? What do you wear to show signs of marriage?”
“Once you connect your energy like that, when you touch your right hands together, you can make them glow. It’s a sign of affection, but nothing other than that, especially since we live here now. There’
s also an exchange of rings. The male gives the female the ring of their family, signifying that she’s joining that line.”
“It sounds enchanting. Now it makes me want to marry one of our own species.”
Damien takes her hands and brings them up to his face. He gently kisses them and then looks into her eyes. “I want to see where this takes us. You are so smart and wonderful. You’re incredibly fun and have a great sense of humor. Most of all you are a beautiful girl, both inside and out. I’m drawn to you, even though we just met.”
A vision of Jackson appears in Kayla’s head, but she quickly shakes it away. “I think I would like you to make me dinner, and we can start there.”
“When can I make you dinner?”
“Why not tonight?”
Damien nods. “I’ll take you to Jackson’s. They have a bigger kitchen, with more stuff. Wear your bathing suit, though. We can go swimming. It’ll be fun.”
“Will there be a Jacuzzi? I love those.”
“There's a Jacuzzi and a steam room, so a date, just the two of us, tonight.”
Kayla smiles. “That sounds nice.”
“Okay,” Damien breathes out as he brings himself down to her. Their lips meet and the kiss is sweet and gentle. Kayla wraps her arms around him and pulls him closer. After a while, Damien pulls back. “All right, we should get back to your body. I don’t want to overdo it your first time.”
“I'm sorry, I don’t know what comes over me when I’m around you.” Then she thinks to herself, Jackson too.
Laughing, Damien tells her, “It’s a hormonal thing. We’re at the age where our species starts to reproduce. If you were around a human, you wouldn’t necessarily feel it, but when you’re around one of us, it will hit you like a ton of bricks. If you have a strong connection to someone, it’s almost impossible to control.”
Again, Kayla’s mind drifts to Jackson, and she has to shake her head free of the thought. “That’s good to know, and it explains a lot. I always thought the guys at school were just too stupid to hold my interest, which of course many of them are, but maybe it’s just because I can’t connect to human men.”
“Come on, dear,” Damien says, taking her hands in his. “We should go back.”
“How do I do that?”
“Close your eyes and exhale. Feel all the energy drain from you.
Kayla takes a deep breath and lets it out, relaxing her body at the same time. She senses that she's being drawn away and when she opens her eyes, she is back in her body.
Jackson is sitting in the living room of her house, glaring at her and Damien. “Wow, nice of you guys to return.”
“Oh stop, Jackson.” Damien sighs behind her. “I’m supposed to be training her.”
“We are supposed to be training her, remember? She wanted me to help her,” Jackson snaps back.
Feeling Damien laugh behind her, Kayla hears him say, “Really? How much time have you put into training someone?”
Kayla nudges Damien with her elbow. “Stop it. I want his help.”
“All right, whatever you want, sweetie.”
“Sweetie?” Jackson growls. “Already jumping into pet names? Did I miss something?”
Blushing, Kayla looks away from him. Damien sighs and says, “We’re having our first official date tonight.”
“You can’t take her out in public,” Jackson yells. “Are you nuts?”
“Not particularly. I’m making her a nice dinner.”
With a confused look, Jackson says, “Here?”
“No, your house. Your parents told us they were going to be gone tonight and that we were supposed to keep an eye on Kayla. Who better to do that than me?”
“We could do it.”
Kayla inhales deeply. “I want to have dinner with Damien. We want to have a date. Does that bother you?”
Jackson looks at her. “I guess not. It’s just my house.”
“I’m a guest there,” Damien interjects. “If you want to get particular, you have to host me. I am a council representative. So really, I can do whatever the hell I want.”
“Damien,” Kayla exclaims. “Stop it! We can do it here. We’re alone anyways.”
He turns to her. “That’s the problem. I don’t want to be disrespectful to your parents, because if I kiss you when they aren’t home and we’re alone,
it may make things awkward.”
“You kiss me all the time without them around. I don’t get it.”
“Jackson is in the house,” Damien replies. “I don’t know. It’s just a situation I want to avoid. I’ve been alone with enough girls, but I want it to be different with you. You deserve more.”
Narrowing her eyes, Kayla says, “I’m not sure how to feel about that comment. Just a hint, don’t compare me to girls you’ve messed around with.”
“Duly noted.”
“Anyway,” Kayla sighs, shaking her head. “So Jackson’s house it is.”
Jackson crosses his arms. “And what exactly do you expect me to do while you’re enjoying this date?”
“You can…bake us something,” Damien answers with a devilish smirk. “But I have a feeling you’re going to pout in your room.”
An angry look passes over Jackson’s face. “I’m not going to pout. I don’t care what you do.”
“That’s good,” Damien draws out, acting blasé. “We should continue with Kayla’s training. I would rather start our date than stand around here.”
“Okay, what’s next?” Kayla asks.
Damien smiles. “I think you’ll be happy about this part. You’re going to shift.”
Throwing her hands up, Kayla squeals. “Yea!”
Both guys laugh. Damien instructs, “You need to change into whatever dog form you turned into before. We’re going to stick to the basic familiarity.”
“Okay,” Kayla replies, closing her eyes. She starts to think of being the golden retriever again.
“Wait, Kayla, hold on,” Jackson yells. Before Kayla can stop it, she shifts into the dog. Jackson and Damien stare at her. “Well…” Jackson starts. “I guess she can do that rather easily.” Happiness overtakes her at his compliment. She feels her tail start to wag, so she turns around to see it, which causes her to turn in circles. Jackson bursts out laughing. “That’s cute, Kayla. I can take a video of you on my phone if you want to see yourself.”
Kayla growls and Damien chuckles. “Bite him and I’ll give you a dollar.” Kayla looks at Damien, and he just smiles. “All right, turn back into yourself.”