Conjuring Dragons by Chante Francis (surface ebook reader TXT) 📕

I quickly change the subject, “So why do you like your coffee disgusting?”

“It’s not disgusting. Here. Try some.” I make a face at him and try to escape the sense of foreboding spreading through my body.

We continue to the classroom like that, with idle chit chat allowing us to get to know each other a little better. He frowns once again and turns to me looking sad that we were finally at the door. I started to get lost in his eyes as I felt something deep inside moving to click into place once more. Then his mouth was on the corner of mine and I snapped out of it. He straightened and with a smirk said "Yum" before walking into the classroom.

I stood there for a good minute touching the spot where he kissed me and blinking rapidly. A voice breaks me out of my thoughts, and I turn to see my teacher, who makes me introduce myself. She asks me why I was late, when my sister wasn’t, and I freeze. Thankfully, my sister and Jason come to my rescue with a plausible story about my locker jamming. I end up sitting near the only familiar face outside of Jason’s group, Silvana, from earlier. She introduces me to two more people, twins like Veronica and I except they’re not identical.

I chat with them while we do our work and take notes, trying my best to forget Jason, or at least not get caught looking at him. The entire class and the one after it passes in a blur of conversations and strengthening friendships, until gym.

I walk into the girl’s changing room and get dragged to the back by my new friends. Apparently they’re all in the same class, so I get a locker by them. We change quickly and run outside to huge fields bordering a track.

"Wow," I gasp in awe at the land around me.

"Nice isn't it?" My newest friend Eleanor say's as her sister drags me towards the track.

"We always run 2 laps before the coach drags us off into some ridiculous sport." Her twin sister Cassie says. I nod and we make our way to the track where virtually the whole class is already assembled.

"We're just going to spend the entire class on the track today." Coach says before walking away and sitting under a tree in the shade. I watch as he leans back and slips into a nice comforting nap. I think I may like the teachers in this school.

"Are you serious?" I ask my friends as I watch our teacher sleep.

"Mr. Crowley must have worn him out last night." Ilvandi says without interest.

"Crowley? You mean vice principle Crowley?" I ask in disbelief.

"Yea." they all say nonchalantly. I think about it some more before just nodding and turning back to the track.

"So," I drag out the word, but stop when I see them change. Ilvandi stretches out his beautiful faerie wings, completely stunning me. When ready, he and Vivi race, him flying while she uses some incredible speed to run. They’re both practically a blur at their pace. A faerie and a vampire. Who would have thought that was actually a possibility? Shouldn’t they be trying to tear each other apart on principle? Without notice, Silvana sneaks off and I watch everyone else race away down the track as a huge beast approaches me.

Holy fuck! There are bears here?!

I’m a wolf. We’ve been through this. Hop on.

Excuse me? I ask the voice that sounds like Phaedron.

I said I would take you for a ride, didn't I?

A bright smile immediately lights up my face as I look at him. How fast are you?

Pretty damn fast. Why?

"Monet! Shall we race?" I yell to my sister, she looks bored out of her mind surrounded by the "popular crowd".

"If I win, you have to kiss Octavia. French style." Veronica says immediately, not giving herself any time to overthink the idea.

"Hell no!" Jason and Octavia yell at the same time outraged for different reasons.

"Fine. If I win... You have to do a strip tease for Carter somewhere public." I say with a smirk. An evil grin matching my own spreads across my sister’s face as she makes her way towards me. It’s amazing how boredom can bring her out of her shell and cause her to throw caution to the wind. Having been with my sister all of our lives, learning everything about her, I knew I had only a brief moment of time before her worries would catch up to her fun side and take over.

"Deal." She says as she stands next to me.

"No deal!" Carter yells angrily.

Veronica and I sigh, "A competition isn’t fun unless the loser does something degrading." We say at the same time.

"Change your consequences." Carter says.

"Fine then." we snap, still speaking at the same time, "Loser has to cut her hair."

Carter and Jason look at each other briefly before agreeing, not that their opinions really mattered. We turn around and Jason yells go, immediately Veronica takes off. I turn and jump on Phae’s back, he takes off passing Veronica in no time. As soon as we pass her, Veronica stops and pulls her phone out of her sports bra. Who is she texting?

In no time at all, we pass the finish line, but don’t stop. Phae runs around until coach gets up and tells us we have 20 minutes of class left. He sends everyone into the locker rooms to change and Phae drops me to the floor while he changes back. I look him in the eyes and we both crack up uncontrollably, gasping for breath. It takes a moment for us to sober up, but it does happen. We end up as the last ones outside heading back towards our respective locker rooms. Jason heads us off at the doors, well, he stops me and tells Phae to keep going.

Phae looks at me questioningly and stands as though he’s not going anywhere. Curiosity takes a hold of me, and I have to convince Phae to leave us alone. Having Jason standing there glaring at him the entire time doesn’t really help things, but eventually he goes inside. I watch him leave to make sure he actually goes into the locker room before turning my full attention to Jason. "Yes?" I ask him.

"You’ve basically been ignoring me since second. Checking out other guys and comparing me to them, looking at me and counting off all my flaws and short comings. I know what you’re doing."

"You know, a person’s private thoughts are meant to be just that Jason. Private.” I say beyond annoyed. He doesn’t respond, doesn’t even feign remorse. Giving up, I shift my focus back to the last words he did say. I let his words play in my head again and again before giving in to his game, “What am I doing?" I raise an eyebrow.

"You’re looking for Mr. right, and honestly? You’re not going to find him. Nobody’s perfect. We're all flawed, and even so I'm the closest thing you’re going to get to him so stop being so stubborn and just give in. We both know you will sooner or later." He says pulling me to his chest sharply.

"I'm not looking for Mr. Right." I say against his chest. Being the opportunist that I am, I start to feel around. Happily exploring the muscles of his chest and abdomen, “2… 4… 6… 6… 8?”

“6.” He corrects, "What did you say?" When I don’t immediately answer and just keep exploring he pulls me away from his chest to look into my eyes. He searches my face looking for a hint of something, what that something is? I have no idea. I’m too busy imagining what he looks like under his shirt, a shirt that I’m currently trying to lift. He stops me and holds my hands at bay.

I sigh, "What if I'm not looking for Mr. Right?" I say with conviction as I pull away from him completely. It's so much easier to think when my body isn't pressed up against his. "What if I say I'm looking for Mr. Right now, and right now, baby, you aren’t him?"

He quickly crushes his lips to mine, and fireworks go off throughout my body like they always do. He pulls me and crushes me to his body tightly; I can’t say that I complain. He squeezes my waist and licks my bottom lip, but I deny him entrance.

This is not the place for that. I hear Veronica's voice in my head. Although it was just a memory from when I played strip poker with the older kids during a friend from the 8th grade’s birthday party, it fit this moment perfectly. It gave me the strength I needed to pull away. I turned and ran back towards the building only stopping to look back twice before going through the doors. I lean back against the doors trailing my fingers against my swollen lips trying to catch my breath.

            Finally I walk back into the girl’s locker room. On my way back to my cleaned clothes, Veronica pulls me into an empty row and says, “Tonsil hockey at school?” with a confused look. I’ve never really been one for public displays of affection at that level. “You like him don’t you?”

            “You know he has a six pack? I’ve never been with a guy who had a six pack.”

            “You’ve only ever been with two guys.”

            “Neither of them had anywhere close to a six pack,” I challenge. “Yes I’ve kissed Jason. We haven’t done much more than kissing though.”

            “Do I hear disappointment?”

“Not at all.” Damn, I look away, “Now if you’ll excuse me oh great queen V, master of perfection, I’d like to change.” Without waiting for a response I keep walking. Reaching my row I head over to my locker and start to get dressed, happy to once again be wearing clothes the school didn’t give me.

It’s pretty quiet in our area, even with everyone there, and that begins to raise some red flags for me. I immediately start to worry that maybe they don’t like me anymore, what did I do wrong this time?

“What’s going on?” I ask them, but no one even looks at me. “You guys ok?” I wave my hand in front of Eleanor’s face before tipping Silvana’s chin up. She’s as red as a cherry.

“Hello? You guys in there?” I ask while knocking lightly on Cassie’s head. “What the fuck happened?!” I yell at them all.

            That’s what ultimately startles them back to animation. All of my new acquaintances, look at me angrily as Silvana stares at her feet. Trying to remember what I could have possibly done incorrectly I return their glares. Do they not like wolves or something? Do I smell? Silvana begins fidgeting even more as Eleanor is the one who finally snaps, "She slept with a fuckin fish!" Even though I've only known them for a few hours, I already know that unlike her twin she rarely curses. Cassie had let me in on that choice piece of info during a conversation last period, telling me that when Eleanor does curse it's because she’s more than a little upset.

"Don't say it so loud!” Silvana looks out to the other rows, making sure that no one else is paying attention to us, “Besides, he's not a fish.” She starts chewing her lower lip, blushing more than before if that was possible, “well, not completely anyways." Turning away again she doesn’t see the huge idiotic grin that spreads across my face. I throw my arms around her and jump up and down happily. The reaction they should have had.

"Silvana." Vivi say’s exasperatedly as she shuts her eyes.

"What is your problem?! You should be happy that she’s making