Haunted by the Immortals

Chapter 20

Nat

The clock chimed midnight and I looked at the picture of me and Cami on her bedside table. It was taken at night; we were both lying down on the blanket on the grass, our eyes locked, our hands laced and the twilight sky encysted with millions of stars. I smiled at it, wondering now if I still had pictures of me and Grace and whether or not – if I did have pictures of the two of us – to destroy them, or to cherish them as my past.

Cami knocked on the door, bringing me to a decision to destroy everything I still had of Grace's. I swallowed hard and turned the handle. Outside, there were three people standing in front of my eyes, the two others sandwiching Cami: Zed and Shauna.

"Hey," I nodded towards Shauna.

She gave me one stern nod back. "Hello, Mr. Wilson. I've heard wonderful things about you."

"Great, no need for an introduction then," I replied.

"No, you'll be surprised to know that we might still need one, Nathan," Zed said mockingly.

Screw him if he's trying to piss me off. "It all depends on what you're offering us or telling us what to do," Shauna stated.

"Should we come in, Nat..." Cami prompted.

I gave her a reassuring look as I replied, "Of course. C'mon in..." I sat down on Cami's bed. "Sorry, we've got a lot of explaining to do."

Zed and Shauna exchanged glances. "That's all right. We have plenty of time." He looked down at his watch. "But we've got to get back to our dorms by two."

I nodded and leant forward getting a glimpse of Shauna's long, slick neck. "Let's cut to the chase." I rubbed my hands together and looked up to see Cami pacing. She didn't normally pace. "I should probably give you two an intro: I'm Nat Wilson, Cami's..."

I knew it sounded crazy, but now that I thought about it, when I looked at Zed, a flash of my witch friend – Zed Carlyle, Grace's brother – showed on Shauna's boyfriend. And for a moment I wondered if...No, never.

Zed tightened his grip on Shauna's hand as he spoke, "Nice to meet you," and also trying for a smile.

"Cami and I have discovered that Undergraduate student, Xan Hagen, is not really who he says he is."

Shauna furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"What we mean is that he's not actually eighteen, he's twenty-four. And he graduated from college last year, but he didn't even go to Caltech."

"This isn't making any sense."

"It's the truth. He – he..." this was very hard to explain to humans when all of the reasons were witch or supernatural related. And then I realized something that I didn't notice when I first saw them, disguised as Pat. Maybe it was because I wasn't close enough to them and therefore, I couldn't smell their blood, but I didn't know why it was. Or why Cami hadn't figured it out yet. "You're both witches."

I felt Cami stop in her tracks. Shauna and Zed didn't look at each other, but just glared back at me. "How'd you know?" Shauna spat, her eyes narrowed.

"I am one."

"Whoa, whoa, so we have four witches in this room?" Zed whistled in amazement. They thought that Cami was one too and that was probably because of her few powers, but still.

"I'm not exactly a witch, Zed," Cami answered.

"What are you then, because I was pretty sure when I saw what you were capable of, that they were all hints of being a witch."