Instinctive Magic

Chapter 1

"Lexi, wake up!" I could vaguely hear a voice call from outside my door, but I was too busy calming down my racing heart. The voice had woken me up out of a deep sleep filled with memories I wish I could forget. Last night's dream has been the day I lost everything; my home, my family, my friends, and my place to belong.

::You didn't lose everything.:: A voice spoke into my head. I jumped at the sound. The voice was that of my identical twin sister, Celeste. To the rest of the world she was dead, but things had a way of turning weird when your mother was a powerful witch.

Yes, I said witch. She had been the leader of a coven until she found out she was mated to a werewolf. Not wanting their pure coven to be tainted by beasts, the rest of the witches forced her out and banished her. Skip a head three years and Mother and Father were now fully accepted members of a wolf pack, my father serving as the pack's Gamma, and Mother as the doctor for the pack. That same year they had Celeste and I.  Despite being hybrids no one treated us badly, and the next twelve years had been great.

But as they say, nothing lasts forever. A couple months before our thirteenth birthday the pack was attacked and destroyed. Mother had sensed the invaders enter pack land, and left to go fight. No one thought that they would get to my sister and I in the middle of our own lands. A small group of wolves had burst into the house had started attacking us, and proving everyone wrong.

A werewolf normally shifts for the first time around sixteen or seventeen, but our wolves can be brought out earlier if our lives are in danger. This is what happened to me. The pain had been horrible, but I thought that I would be able to protect myself and my sister. I was so wrong.

One of the enemy wolves quickly began to attack me, tearing into my flesh and almost completely ripping out my throat. He left me in a rapidly spreading pool of my own blood to die as he advanced on my sister huddled in a corner. Using the little magic Mother had taught us, Celeste had cast a protection spell on both herself and I.

The magic ripped through the room, sending the enemy wolves flying. But not before one got to her. It tore into her, ripping her left arm and right leg from her body.

The room was deafeningly silent in the aftermath of the spell. I remember looking at my sister, younger than me by a few minutes. I remember seeing her blood race along the floor as it left her body. I remember watching the two pools of blood spread until they touched. And I remember the protective magic flaring to life again as it found a way to save it's two dying charges. That's the last thing I remember from that night.

Three days later I woke up in the middle of the now cooled and congealed blood. Alone. No one had come for us. And when I tried to find my sister she was gone.

I left the house we had been in and found the bodies of my pack mates littering the landscape. I screamed. I have no I idea how long I'd stood there and released my pain through my throat. Eventually I heard a second set of screams, but not with my ears. In my mind cries of confusion and fear where giving me a headache.

Closing my eyes I focused on the screams. It was Celeste's slightly higher and softer voice I was hearing. I formed the words in my mind, and she seemed to be able to hear them, for she calmed down. It took us a while but we were able to figure out what happened to us.

Celeste's spell wanted to fulfill its duty and save us, but my wolf form and her human one were both too far gone for it to heal. So it took the parts of us that weren't damaged and put us all together. My human side and her wolf side.

It wasn't until days later, after we were found by the humans, that we discovered exactly how much we had been pieced together. In the mirror in the hospital we found that any part of my body that was damaged had been replaced with the parts from hers if it was undamaged. Thin, almost invisible, scars showed where the replacement had happened, as well as the fact that Celeste's skin was just slightly less pale than mine from being outside more.

The biggest difference was our eyes, just like when  we had separate bodies. Celeste and I had been identical, except for the fact that my eyes were a cat like green, and hers had been the blue of pure unpolluted water from a glacier. And looking into the mirror I had found her left eye starting back at me.

That was five years ago. I was only a little over a month a way from turning eighteen now. And I was finally out of the horrid place the human foster care system has put me.

Mrs. Lockwood- Elizabeth, I reminded myself, had become my guardian three months ago, and so far it was amazing. Love and affection whenever I wanted it, food when I was hungry, and clothes that actually fit me. She even got me colored contacts when she noticed how much I hated the attention my eyes got. This was the happiest I'd been since I'd lost my pack.

Today was my first day of school, and somehow the word nervous failed to do my mental state justice. I hurried through my morning routine. I gathered my dark curls at the back of my head and used a hair clip to keep them in place. I grabbed my set of blue contacts and put in the right one so that my eyes almost matched. We hadn't been able to find one that perfectly matched Celeste's icy blue.

Thankfully I; or rather Celeste, who actually cares about fashion, had picked out an outfit the night before. Dark wash skinny jeans covered my legs, while a black scoop neck shirt was on top. The shirt had sleeves that ended just above my elbows, which was just a couple inches before the end of the sleeves on the grey knit cardigan I put on to keep warm in the early January weather. I finished off the look with with grey suede knee high boots.

Starting at myself in the mirror I applied my make up. Nothing to big, just a grey scale smoky eyes and some red lipstick, but it made me feel better instantly. I know lots of people think make up is dumb and that girls shouldn't waste their time on it. But it honestly made me feel more secure, like there was a barrier between me and the rest of the world that I could hide behind. Not to mention that it made my sister happy.

Throwing on my thin black rimmed glasses, to correct the nearsightedness in my now contact covered right eye, I head downstairs for breakfast with my aunt. I had a feeling this was going to be a long day, and I was not looking forward to it. Sadly Elizabeth thought I needed to learn to socialize more, so I couldn't just be home schooled.

"Hello, Darling. How did you sleep?" My aunts voice was way too perky for eight in the morning. I have her the evil eye before fixing my customary breakfast; coffee with glad the mug filled with milk and nine spoons of sugar, and toast with jam. What? I like sweet things.

"I refuse to be coherent enough to answer questions until after I've finished my coffee."  I sign back with sluggish movements. So I might not be a morning person, but at least I'm not one of the people who're always cranky in the morning.

"Honey, I hate to tell you this, but that's not coffee anymore. That's diabetes in a cup." I give her another dirty look before taking a pointed sip from my mug. Yummy.

After finishing my breakfast I give my aunt a kiss on the cheek before grabbing my backpack. My new school was irritatingly close, so I ended up having to walk there. The winter wind swirled around me and nipped at my exposed skin as I walked out of the house. The walk was only about ten minutes long, and left me in front of my new school.

It was a fairly average building; reddish brown bricks, three stories, small industrial windows, and teenagers hanging around their cars and the front entrance. I could practically smell the hormones that had seeped into the building itself. This was going to be so much fun. Not.

::Do you think there will be any cute boys?:: Celeste's voice filled my head once again, and I have her a mental eye role. I swear she would bang any cute guy she saw if it wasn't for me. I have no problems with people who sleep around, but I was not going to have sec with a long term committed relationship. Call me old fashion.

::Probably not, Cel.:: I heard a dissapointed sigh before she chose to ignore the world. Lucky. Time to go have my new purgatory.

Hello my beautiful Angels! How are you guys? Did you like the official first chapter? Anyone want to share their feelings on make up? Comment with your thoughts and ideas.

Love,
    Raven💋