This is the beginning of my online novel for NaNoWriMo. 

Finding Firebird is a story about Phoenix, a teenage girl who lost her mother at a young age.  When her father doesn't allow her to invite her mother's parents, who she hasn't seen since she turned 2, to her eighteenth birthday party, she goes in search of answers. 

With the help of a young man named Kayde, Phoenix find her grandparents and finds why her father has such a problem with them, and now, she has to make a choice. 

If you are starting the book for the first time, look at the scene list box to the right.  Click on the first week (Nov 1-Nov 8). This will drop down a list of Chapters and Scenes.

My bed grew softer and softer until I felt as if I was laying on nothing but puffs of cotton.  I begin to sink lower and lower until the cotton cloud envelopes me.  I can breathe and know that I am not in danger but that knowledge does not stop my fear.  Then, as if all at once, I begin to float downward.  It is slow at first and then faster, I'm no longer floating, I'm falling.  I see scenes passing me, or I pass scenes of a girl’s life.  I see her growing from a young child to a teenager. 

I remember none of these scenes of youth, but recognize people, places and events as if I were there.  Am I this girl? Am I the star of all these small movies?  I continue falling, and though I have no idea how fast I am moving, I know that I am going quicker than I would like.  But I am not afraid.  It is as if I will never land, as if I am flying purposefully, but without knowledge of where I am going. And then, for the first time yet, I wonder... Where AM I going?  I'm falling and falling fast, and now, only now, I am afraid.  I panic, I cry and I scream. Not for the fall, or the landing, but I know I am asleep, which means I will have to wake up, and that is what is scaring me.  When I wake up, where will I go?

Suddenly, I land.  It is neither fast and jarring, nor slow, soft and easy, I am just on the ground.  As if all I had done was jump up and land on my feet.  I open my eyes, which I hadn't noticed were closed and I see someone. Or something.  As my eyes focus, they, it, disappears and a tree is in their place.  'But it could not have been a tree.' I think to myself. 'There was hair, a curved waist.' I was sure of it. I thought.  Even if what I had seen was a tree, the curves were different.

I walk up to the tree and feel it pulling me. I step under its branches and look up and down it's trunk.  It couldn't have been whatever or whoever I thought I had seen, they were gone.  I feel the tree pulling to me, or more accurately, I feel the tree pulling me to it.  As I step closer, for just a moment, I see a woman I recognize standing in front of the tree, opening her arms to me for a hug.  My arms open and wrap around the tree and I feel its warmth pulse around me, as it pulls me into it. 

It is hot and dark in this tree, and as I stand taking in the warmth and the sweet sappy smell, the wind begins to blow.  It is fierce and chilling and everything is telling me that I should get out of this wind before it becomes a storm, but I don't.  Goose bumps rise on my arm and my teeth begin to chatter, but I still am not cold enough to escape this wind.  It's blowing all my fears and worries off of my body, it seems.  Taking away I deal with through the day. All of my stresses.  I hear a voice on the wind, but cannot make out the words.  It is so familiar, like the obscure song you hear in a movie, but don't really listen to until you hear it 3 weeks later on the radio
I follow the voice to a lake not far off.  The wind has brought rain and now, I do wish for shelter from this storm.  I am scared and cold and wish that I could just go home.  I don't know how to get home from here. A cave maybe? My tree, where is my tree that shared its love and warmth with me?  Why can't I just go home?  Thoughts of home turned to thoughts of work. I don't remember what I do at work, or where I work, only that I don't know why I still work there.  Quickly, my thoughts become dark and sour, and the fear of not knowing where I am going return.  I sit on the cold wet earth and cry.  This cry feels different.  I feel as if each tear is washing away a tiny bit of fear and cleansing me.  My heavy heart weighs less with each sob until it is so light I feel love radiating from the top of my head, pouring forth to everything around me.

The clouds blow away and the rain lightens, then ceases and I am left on the wet ground with the lake.  I couldn't see it in the rain, but as I look ahead of me, I see how vast the lake is, as if it stretches on for miles.  I stand up to survey the area around me, and don't even mange to turn around.  The water is bight and clear.  I see each pebble, rock and shell in the bottom of the lake.  As the small waves settle, a shape begins to form.

Curves and hair like I thought I saw when I stopped falling.  She is the same woman that wanted me to hug the tree as well.  Now she is in the water? It makes no sense.  I reach out to touch the water, to feel her, to know that she really is there and not just my imagination, but as soon as the tip of my finger touches the water, a single ray of light hits the water above her and she vanishes again.  I look up to see the most amazing sunrise I've ever seen.  The sky is filled with reds and pinks and oranges that I've never seen before.  As I feel the warmth, I look around me and see that it is all vanishing, just as the woman did.

Kayde went into the bathroom to get ready for bed while I stayed in the bedroom. I stripped out of my dress, panties and bra to start getting ready for bed. First, I brushed my long orange hair and pulled it into a braid that I let Lay to the side of my head and over my shoulder. I pulled out my makeup bag, opened it up and began to search for my make up remover and a few cotton balls. I put a small amount of my oil free eye make up remover on a cotton ball and swiped it over my eye lids a couple of times until my eye make up was mostly gone, then I added a bit more to a second, cleaner cotton ball and went over my eye lids again, just to make sure it was gone. I pressed my mouth to the back of my hand to check for any lipstick that might have made it through the hectic night and was pleased to find out that there wasn’t anything left. I picked my dress up and hung it on a hanger that I found in the closet and then hung it on the closet door. After everything seemed nice and organized, I opened up my two suitcases and pulled my pillow out and put in on the bed and walked back over to my suitcases and leaned over them. As I was pillaging through them, looking for pajamas, Kayde opened the door and walked in before I could cover myself up.

“Oh, I’m sorry babe; I didn’t know you weren’t ready yet.” He said, sounding shy.

I can’t believe we’ve had sex twice and he’s still shy about seeing me naked. I thought to myself. “Its ok babe, I mean, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before.” I assured him, somewhat turned on by the way he was looking at me.

“Yea, but it’s different when I walk in on you facing away from me and bent over like that.” He answered.

I chuckled to myself softly as I realized that Kayde was slowly growing a bulge behind the thin pants he had on. I smiled at him and walked towards him slowly.

“I don’t think you’re quite as embarrassed as you would like for me to believe.” I told him, standing in front of him.

“What do you mean?” He asked.

For an answer, I reached down in front of him and slid my hand into his pants, lightly rubbing my finger tips along his quickly growing cock.

Kayde smiled at me and laughed softly. “I guess you’ve figured me out, haven’t you? It’s true; I was incredibly turned on by the sight of you bent over bearing all like that.” Kayde said to me as he slid one hand around my waist and pulled me closer to him.

I turned us so that he was between me and the bed and began walking towards the bed pressing against him. When we got to the bed I push him down on to it so that he was sitting on the edge and kneeled down in front of him. I had wanted him in my mouth for quite awhile, but until now, it had not happened, and I planned to change that.

I pulled his cock out from under the pants and pulled them down slightly, allowing his cock to move more freely. I had seen his dick before, obviously, but not from this angle. I leaned forward and pressed my lips against the head of his cock, allowing them to part slightly. I flicked the tip of my tongue against the small bit of flesh between my lips and heard a tiny gasp escape his lips.

I opened my mouth a bit more and took the entire head of his cock into my mouth and sucked on it lightly as I swirled my tongue around it. Kayde began to moan softly and ran his fingers through my hair. He grabbed the back of my head and pushed himself in my mouth almost making me choke. I pulled away fro a minute to take a breath and then tried again to take his whole cock in my mouth. I felt him pressing against the back of my throat and gagged a bit. I adjusted my position quickly and began bobbing my head back and forth taking in the whole length of his cock. Kayde’s hips rocked back and forth as I devoured his cock. He watched me through half closed eyes and lightly thrusts in and out of my mouth as he was moaning softly. 

Suddenly I began to feel hints of him throbbing in my mouth against my tongue. I grabbed his hips with my hands and pulled him to me as the head of his cock began to swell lightly, pulsing against the back of my throat. I began trying to swallow, massaging him with my throat and tongue. After just a few seconds, Kayde grabbed the back of my head and pulled my face against him, burying his entire cock in my mouth as he began squirting cum down my throat. I swallowed as much as I could but still a bit leaked out of my mouth onto my chin and corner of my mouth.

After Kayde had cum, he pulled my head away from him and lifted me up. “It’s your turn now beautiful.” He said to me as he pulled me into his lap. Kayde slid me down his still hard cock and started fucking himself into me. I was so horny from sucking him off that I started moaning immediately. Each time Kayde’s cock slid up into me, I felt him throb. Kayde lay back onto the bed and pulled me forward with him so that I was lying on top of him while he fucked me. He fucked me soft and slowly, hitting my g-spot perfectly each time he pushed in or pulled out of me. It wasn’t long that I began rocking myself back onto his cock more vigorously, wanting him to pound me until I came.

Kayde lifted his head and began sucking on my nipple as he slid one hand down my back and slipped a finger into my ass. He fucked me faster as he fingered my ass and sucked my nipple making me moan loudly. I felt my body tense up and moaned loudly. My eyes began to well up with tears, not out of any negative emotion, just from an over abundance of pleasure.

“Oh Kayde, I can’t take it. Give me a sec.” I pleaded with him trying to get him to slow down or give me a small break.

Instead of slowing down, or stopping, Kayde began fucking me harder and slipped a second finger into my ass and began pounding me.

“Cum for me baby girl. Squeeze my fat cock baby.” Kayde gasped as he slammed his cock up into me.

I began moaning loudly as the tears flowed down my cheeks. My hands found their way to Kayde’s head and I grasped handfuls of his hair as my pussy began to tighten.

“That’s right baby, give it to me. I want you to cum all over that hard dick.” Kayde said before he moved his mouth back to my nipple and nibbled on it slightly.

I felt my clit and pussy began to throb and plastered my mouth to his in an attempt to keep my self from screaming. I felt my pussy juice gushing from me as Kayde began filling me with his cum. My whole body throbbed with pleasure as I floated through the best orgasm I had ever experienced.

I’m not sure how long I lay on the bed next to him, but it was long enough to make me doze off. Kayde lifted me up and covered me with the sheet, soft white fleece blanket and comforter and then lay next to me. His chest was pressed up against my back and he wrapped an arm around my waist and we both drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up, we were parked in a parking garage and Kayde was saying my name softly. Everything was dark and I was incredibly tired, annoyed, and just plain grumpy.

“Where are we?” I asked, although, hissed might be a more appropriate word.

“We’re just parking here, there’s a direct link, so to speak, to their house” Said Kayde. “Don’t worry, you’re just grumpy because you’re tired.”

I glared up at Kayde as we got out of the car.

“Ooh, you’re cute when you’re grumpy.” He said laughing.

We walked around to the back of the car and Kayde opened it up. Kayde pulled out his suitcase and laughed.

“Yep, you’re definitely a girl…” He said quietly as I began pulling my back pack out of the trunk.

Kayde leaned forward and pulled out my two suitcases for me. He handed the smaller of the two to me and carried his and my larger one. We followed Flora and Syle to an elevator and waited for it to arrive. Either the elevator took about 10 minutes to show up, or I was so immensely tired that it felt like it had taken 10 minutes to show up, because by the time it got to us, I was leaning against Kayde and close to falling asleep. I stood up, slightly embarrassed at my inability to make it more than a few minutes without passing out.

Kayde handed me my things and the four of us loaded into the elevator car. When I got inside, I was shocked at the buttons, which instead of numbers, for levels, they had words. For a moment, it didn’t connect with me, until I realized that the button my grandfather had pressed was Rose. So it wasn’t words on the buttons, it was names.

I wonder why they’ve got names instead of numbers or words, or fruits, like at the mall or something. I wondered to myself. My question was answered when the doors opened around a minute or two and we were right at my grandparent’s front door.

My grandfather opened the door and held it open for Kayde and I and then went into the kitchen.

Once my grandfather had left the room, my grandmother turned to us.

“This is a sensitive subject for Syle, since, even though you’re an adult and have come into your powers, he still sees you as his grandbaby.” She explained. “The two of you have two choices while you’re here and those choices are to either share Raven’s room, share the living room, or Kayde staying in the living room while Phee sleeps in Raven’s bedroom.

“Of course, I’m going to leave the decision up to the two of you, who am I to get involved in your sleeping arrangements?” My grandmother finished up and then walked into the kitchen with Syle.

Kayde and I walked over to the couch and sat down next to each other. For a few minutes, Kayde and I sat next to each other in silence. What will he think if I tell him he can stay in the room with me? I don’t want him to think I’m eager to move in with him or anything. I thought to myself. But what if I tell him I’d rather for him to sleep in the living room? Then he’ll think I don’t want him in the bedroom with me, and oh boy do I want him in that room with me.

At the same time, Kayde and I turned to each other.

“You can sleep in the room if you want to.” I said.

“I wouldn’t mind if you wanted me to sleep in the living room.” Kayde said to me at the exact same time.

“I just don’t want you to be uncomfortable.” He finished.

“I would just hate for you to feel uncomfortable though.” I told him.

We laughed together and Kayde wrapped an arm around me and looked at me. “I would love to stay in the bedroom with you, unless it would make you feel uncomfortable.” He said right before he kissed me.

“Yes, I want you in the bedroom with me.” I answered for him.

Kayde and I stood up to take our things in the bedroom just as Flora was coming out of the kitchen.

“Now that you two have things settled, why don’t you go ahead and take your things to the bedroom while I finish up this pot of tea?”

“Go ahead and rest, love” Said Kayde to me “I’ll take our things in the room.”

He took the suitcase and back pack from me and carried our things into the bedroom.

While I was waiting for him to come back, my grandmother and grandfather came in with a pot of tea and four tea cups and saucers on a tray.

“This is a special blend of herbs to help with restful sleep” Flora explained “It’s sweetened with Stevia leaves so that you don’t use sugar or honey, which contains natural sugars.”

Kayde walked back in the living room from putting our things in the bedroom. He sat down next to me and leaned forward to pour a cup of tea for himself and for me as well as he listened to my grandmother explain the tea a bit more.

“The reason I wanted to make this is because it helps the imbiber to sleep deeply, which will help keep you from having dreams that may cause your power to act up. It’s been drank in the Faery community for decades to help Fae who are just coming into their powers sleep well and not have to worry about power hiccups.”

Kayde and I lifted our glasses and each took a sip of the tea, which it seemed we both found delicious. The four of us sat around talking, or more accurately, Kayde and I sat on the couch listening to funny stories about Fae who thought they could handle not having to drink the tea when they were coming into their power.

My favorite was a story of Flora’s niece, my second cousin, Alva. She had a baby boy, named Caleb, who was born an animal Faery. Alva was worried about the impact of the tea on infant’s health, so she decided not to give him the tea. One night she woke up and heard Caleb crying. When she went into the nursery to check on him his bedroom had filled with animals that had crawled through the window.

After we had finished a second cup of tea, Kayde and I decided to head off to bed. I hugged my grandmother and grandfather and thanked them for their hospitality and Kayde and I walked toward the bedroom.

We drove to my father’s home in silence, save for a few coughs, sneezes and sighs. I wasn’t really ready to talk about the whole moving thing, and even though I didn’t say that, it seemed as though my grandmother understood that.

By the time we got there, I was so tired of everything that I had decided not to try to talk to my dad about the situation and to just let him go ahead and listen to the message and call me when he was ready. My grandmother and I got out of the car and walked up the pathway to the front door. I pulled the keys out of my purse and opened the front door and walked in.

I decided to get my laptop first since it was down stairs. I turned the living room light on by flipping the switch next to the front door and saw that the entire living room was in shambles.

There were books and DVD cases all over the floor and the coffee table was on its side. One of our antique wooden chairs was knocked over and missing a leg, which, after a quick scan of the living room, was found in front of the broken TV. The only things that seemed not to be out of place or broken were my CDs, my laptop, and the couch, that my father was sleeping on. I went and gathered up my laptop and CDs and began to head up to my bedroom.

Once I was in my room, I was shocked to find that nothing had been touched, except for a picture that had been sitting on my dresser of me when I was born in my mother’s arms and my father next to us kissing mom on the cheek.

Since that photo was gone, I grabbed the next best one, me, my mom and my dad at the park having a picnic. I placed my things on my bed and opened the closet and pulled two of my suitcases out of the back.

In the larger one, I laid my pillow on the bottom and then set my laptop, the photo, and my CDs on top of it. I pulled out 5 t-shirts and a couple of tank tops and piled them into my suitcase. I then grabbed a few bras and underwear and tossed them on the top. As I was filling the next suitcase with pants and shorts, Flora zipped up the large suitcase and carried it downstairs for me. I grabbed a book and my makeup bag and stuck them in my backpack and zipped both up and carried them down the stairs.

As I was headed out the door, I put my suitcase and back pack down on the floor and walked into the living room. I kissed my dad on the forehead and covered him up.

“I’m going to miss you, Daddy” I whispered as I pulled away from him “I love you.”

“Love you too, Firebird” My father mumbled, obviously still mostly asleep.

I turned toward my grandmother will my eyes full of tears and walked back towards my suitcase and backpack and picked them up. I locked the door and closed it behind us.

“Let’s get out of here, before I freak out, or somebody sees me.”
“No problem cupcake.” My grandmother responded softly.

We put my things in the car and before I knew it, we were back at Kayde’s, and he was packing his things into the trunk and sliding into the back seat next to me. He pulled me against him and held me, with his hand rubbing over my hair softly.

“Who is it?” He shouted through the door.

“Open the door silly boy!” I heard my grandfather shout from outside. “We can see your glow from under the door.” He taunted.

Kayde opened the door and let my grandparents in the house.

“We heard you needed some help, hm?” Said Flora. “And by the looks of it, I can see why you didn’t just go to Phee’s house to ask for Al’s help.”

“My boy, you’re positively glowing. Do you know your power yet?” Asked my grandfather.

“Oh, we know it alright.” I answered. “It’s a positive kick in the pants. Once he masters it, he’s taking me to the casino.”

“Oh my…” Said Flora.

“You mean he’s…” Said Syle, not finishing his sentence.

“Yes, I am.” Said Kayde; at first, I was confused with his answer to their unasked questions, but then I realized he must be reading their minds.

“Well Syle, it looks as though we are going to have our hands full with these two.” Said my grandmother as she walked over to the couch I was sitting on and sat next to me.

“Yes dear, we certainly will.” My grandfather answered.

“Well, first thing’s first.” My grandmother said looking from Kayde to myself. “We need to get the two of you out of town. I think between Syle and I, we can manage to cover the two of you with our glamour until we can get you out of town. Once we’re on the freeway, it should be sweet sailing, so to speak. Kayde, we can put you in a sweat shirt with a hood, Phee, it will be dark enough that unless someone shines a flashlight on you, they won’t be able to know that you look like a cherry.”

“Wait a minute” Said Kayde “What exactly are you planning to do with my nifty new radioactive glow?”

“Anyone who passes us and notices your skin will just assume it’s a flashlight or lantern in the back seat.” Answered my grandfather. “For a few days, the two of you can stay at our house…”

“Wait, what do you mean?” I said, cutting off my grandfather. “Why only for a few days?”

“Let him finish babe, I think you’ll like the idea.” Said Kayde, sitting down next to me.

“As I was saying, for a few days, the two of you can stay at our house while we wait for the committee to finish your home in the forest.” My grandfather began to explain “Of course, you don’t have to live there permanently, the way your grandmother and I do, it can be a vacation home, so to speak. It will be a great place for the two of you to work on your powers, and a great place to set up shop when you need to not be in the real world.”

“How are we to know that this committee will even let us live there, I mean, we’re only half Fae.” I asked, not wanting to allow myself to get too excited.

“Because they have already approved it, dear one.” My grandmother said, hugging me. “That’s where we went after we had to leave the restaurant. We knew right away that you were the cause of the candles and the fire in the kitchen. We couldn’t let you go home with your father, especially after the situation at the restaurant.

“The differences we have with your father aren’t important. We knew it would kill you if you hurt him, and couldn’t let something like that happen to you.”

I turned toward my grandmother, surprised that they knew me so well. “What about my birthday party? Dad’s worked so hard on it, and we only have a week!” I asked, more worried about hurting my father’s feelings than about not having an eighteenth birthday party.

My grandfather, who as usual, had been pretty quiet, spoke up. “We’re pretty sure that we’ve got that figured out. You probably won’t know your glamour by then, though with hard work, it’s possible to get a hold on your powers. So, why not change it to a costume party?”

“That’s fine with me,” I answered “But what about Kayde? What’s he going to be? A light bulb?”

“I can cover myself in make up.” He answered. “Or body paint. Believe me, I can come up with something.”

After that, I had no qualms about the party so I called my father. Not surprisingly, he didn’t answer either phone, so I left him a message. “Hi Daddy, it’s me. I’m at Kayde’s, everything is fine. Kayde and I are going to go to grandma and grandpa’s for awhile and try to get a handle on things before the party.

“I know you’re worried, but try not to be, I’m still your Firebird, just, a little bit more so, I suppose. I love you.”

I hung up the phone and looked at my grandmother and grandfather and sighed.

“We’re going to have to run by the house and pick up some clothes for you” My grandmother said as she rubbed my shoulder “Why don’t we head to the house and do that while Kayde gets some of his things together?”

I nodded and leaned forward to lightly kiss Kayde on the cheek.

“Don’t forget your paints love.” I reminded him, knowing that this would be difficult for him and that painting would help him feel better.

“Don’t forget your music and laptop.” He told me, kissing my cheek as well.

My grandmother and I stood up and walked toward the door.

“Wait, babe, put this on, it’s cold out there.” Kayde said, jumping up and handing me his sweatshirt. “It’ll help with the whole red thing too.”

“Now, we just wait to see if it works.” Said Kayde, looking at me with a smile, “We should maybe put some clothes on, unless you’re interested in a rather awkward visit. How are you feeling?”

“Good” I answered “I’m a bit dizzy though. That was pretty intense.”

“Ok, let’s ground you. We can’t leave you holding onto all of that energy.”

Kayde took my hand and led me outside to his garden, which was very luckily fenced in with tall wooden boards.

“Kneel on the ground” He instructed me, almost formally “Good, now lean forward with your hands on the ground and get your body as close to the earth as you can.”

I did as he said and immediately began feeling better.

“Imagine your body glowing with a pure, golden light.” He said softly, giving me a few moments to visualize “Ok, now imagine all that light draining out of your body and down into the earth.”

I did as he had instructed and after a minute or two, I felt amazing! My body felt light, I felt almost high, like I was on some kind of happy pill. I was calmer and happier and less worried about everything. As I was lying against the earth, a breeze rolled across my skin and I realized I was still bare naked, and it was kind of cold. I stood up and looked at Kayde.

“Um, babe, I’m freezing, can we go back in the house?” I asked. “I’m kind of cold… And naked.”

Kayde took my hand and we walked back in the house.

“Are you feeling any better, love?” He asked

“Yes, much, in fact, I feel better than I did even before all of the drama tonight.” I told him.

“Magick will do that to you” He told me “It’s almost like you get high on it.”

We walked back in the door and through the house. The colors in the house all seemed brighter, more vivid some how. When we got into the living room, there was a knock on the door.

Who could that be? I thought to myself. Kayde began to walk towards the door and motioned for me to start getting dressed.

Kayde’s hands pushed and prodded at my legs until they were no longer crossed and pulled me into his lap as we kissed. When I realized I was in his lap, I wrapped my legs back around him. His lips against mine felt almost the way it feels when you press your tongue against a nine volt battery. They buzzed against each other, but in a much more pleasant way. His hands were under my ass, holding me to him. I could tell that he had no plans to stop touching me anytime soon. Even if he was, I wouldn’t have given him the choice. The light electricity I felt in my body was growing, and there seemed to be no way to get rid of it other than being pressed against him.

Kayde leaned forward until I was lying on the soft blanket on the floor. He reached under my dress and pulled my thong down my thighs and down my legs. He seemed to be in such a hurry to get between my legs that he didn’t even bother taking them all the way off. He lay on his stomach between my legs and hooked my knees over his shoulders, my thong dangling off my left ankle, and pressed his lips against my pussy.

With much more fury than last night, he slid his tongue up my slit and sucked on my clit while he pressed his fingers into me. His tongue swirled around my clit in circles and figure eights as he slid his fingers in and out of me quickly.

I reached up and grabbed the back of his head, pulling him closer to me, wanting more than he was giving me. My hips rocked back and forth as he pulled his fingers out of me and moved his hand from my clit down to my pussy. He began thrusting his tongue in and out of my pussy and used his thumb to rub my clit quickly.

“Oh god babe, you’re going to make me cum.” I shouted “Don’t stop baby, please, make me cum!”

Much to my surprise and dismay, when I said that, Kayde pulled away from me, leaving me hanging on the brink of orgasm as he took his shirt, pants, and boxers off. Once he was completely naked, he wrapped his arms around me and lifted me to a sitting position. He grabbed the hem of my dress and pulled it up over my head. He then reached around me and unfastened my bra and pulled it off.

He laid me back down on the blanket and slowly slid himself into me. I don’t know if it was the strange electric current running through my body, or the fact that I was so close to orgasm, or if it was just because I knew what to expect, but his size didn’t seem to hurt quite as much as it did the night before.

Instead of starting slow, as he did last night, he began sliding into me deep and fast. The slight pain I felt each time he slammed into me was immediately over taken by a wonderful feeling of pleasure. I moaned loudly, knowing how close I was to orgasm, knowing that the minute Kayde began to cum, it was going to set me off into a mind blowing orgasm.

Kayde stopped for a minute with his cock still in me, and lifted my legs up over his shoulders, and went back to sliding in and out of me. This new angle actually kind of hurt, but the pain was overshadowed by the pleasure. I felt myself begin to tighten around Kayde’s cock and began to feel him throbbing inside of me.

“Kayde, harder” I begged “You’re going to make me cum.”

He began to slam his pelvis into me faster as my moans turned to screams. I loved how hard he was fucking me. I loved how amazing it felt to have every inch of him inside of me. I even loved the pain because it contrasted the pleasure so beautifully.

My hips began to arch up towards him as my breath caught in my throat. I heard Kayde grunt lightly and before I knew it my whole body had started to spasm with waves of pleasure and I could feel Kayde releasing hot cum into me.

After a few seconds, Kayde lowered my legs and leaned forward to kiss me. He stood up and then took my hands, standing me up as well.

Kayde held our arms in the air, our hands pressed palm to palm. ”All thanks and blessings be,” He said “To those of air, earth, fire, and sea. Please, send Flora and Syle to this home, communicate to them that we need their help.”

He turned toward the north and blew out the green candle, and moved counter clockwise around the blanket to each candle, blowing them out.

In his hands, slug over his shoulder was what looked like a blanket filled with, well, stuff that I had no clue what it was. As he got to the bottom of the stairs, he set his pack down on the ground and moved the coffee table up against the wall in the hall. He picked his pack back up and set it where the table had been and opened it up. He spread the blanket out on the floor so that it was flat. He took out what looked like a compass and set it down next to his pile of supplies as I stood up and came over next to him.

Next to the edge of the blanket, where the compass was pointing north, he set a green candle on a small saucer. Next, he went to the eastern edge of the blanket and set a yellow candle on a saucer as well. He repeated the process with a red candle on the southern edge and a blue one on the west.

He picked up a large blood red colored leather covered, seemingly hand bound book with the letter C embossed in the center. I assumed this was the Book of Shadows that he had been talking about earlier. It was a beautiful book and I wondered how long his family had owned it.

Kayde opened the book up and read over what was written on the page and then set the book down on the couch. He took my hand and pulled me to the center of the blanket.

“It says for us to send welcoming energy out to the Faeries, but I’m pretty sure it’s obvious that we’re pretty welcoming at the moment.” He told me laughing as he handed me 4 small quartz crystals. “I want you to kiss each of these and set it down next on the saucer, opposite the blanket, starting with the yellow candle in the east.”

I did as he asked, working my way from yellow, to red, to blue, and then to green.

“Each candle represents a different element” He told me, pointing to each candle. “Yellow for air, red for fire, blue for water and green for earth.

He sat down in the middle of the blanket and lightly pulled me down to sit in front of him as well.

“Oh spirits of plants and earth and trees, oh elemental ones of every form, show yourselves to me, I ask. From us shall come no harm. Join us in friendship and in love.” Said Kayde “Rejoice with me in this magick old, for together with the ancient gods we can recreate all things in gold. Guardian spirits, watchers fair, our lives are joined. All things we share.”

He stood up and walked toward the yellow candle and motioned for me to follow. He had me light the candle and then sprinkle a spoonful of powdered ginger over the quartz crystal.

“All you Air spirits and faeries hear my call. Enter this magick circle. Welcome All.” He said.

Again, I lit the red candle and sprinkled the ginger over the crystal.

”All you spirits of the sunbeams, hear my call. Enter this magick circle. Welcome All.” Said Kayde.

I walked to the blue candle and lit it and sprinkled more ginger.

“All you nymphs and water sprites, hear my call. Enter this magick circle. Welcome All.” He said again.

For the last time, I walked to the Green candle and lit it and once again sprinkled the ginger.

”All you little ones of the moonbeams, hear my call. Enter this magick circle. Welcome All.” He repeated a fourth and final time.

As Kayde pulled me back toward the floor and the blanket, I felt strangely electric. My body felt as if it were buzzing, filled with energy. As Kayde and I sat down across from each other I felt an incredible desire to touch him. The urge grew and grew until without even a conscious decision to do so, I had leaned forward, my hands on each side of his head and pulled his face towards me and kissed him.

“Oh Kayde!” I exclaimed “What on earth am I going to do? I can’t very well go around setting things on fire out in public every time someone pisses me off!”

Kayde moved closer to me and put his arm around me, obviously not sure what to say or do. He was sweet though and put his hand on to the back of my head and pulled my head to his shoulder when he saw my eyes fill with tears.

I was both pleasantly surprised and incredibly unhappy with myself at that point. Even though I wasn’t able to stop myself from starting the fire, I was able to set the log on fire by keeping my eyes on it and nothing else while I was upset. But what if… What if I was arguing with someone? I thought to myself. What if my father and I got into another argument about my grandparents? What if I couldn’t stop myself and he ends up being what I am looking at? I couldn’t stand the possibility of that.

“Phee, look at me sweetie.” Kayde said to me, putting his hand on my chin and lifting it, not giving me much of a choice to avoid looking at him. “Syle and Flora will figure something out. They both know how dangerous it is for both you and your father to stay there with them. Just because they disagree on some things, they have no plans to let you have a chance to hurt your father in any way, shape, or form.”

It was almost as if he had read my mind. He was already incredibly intuitive. What if he ended up being some kind of mind reader Faery? Did that happen? It wasn’t very natural. Was it possible to have a power, a specialty that didn’t focus on some aspect of nature? It sounded like a stretch to me, but I didn’t see why it would be impossible. Nothing was impossible; at least that was what I always liked to believe.

“I don’t think it’s impossible at all, babe.” Kayde answered the questions I hadn’t really asked. “In fact, I think it’s completely possible.”

I looked up at Kayde, both shocked and surprised, and even still, a bit confused. I didn’t think he had changed his color at all, but as I looked up, I saw his skin was glowing, almost as brightly as the moon, and his normally dark hair had turned an amazing, light shade of lavender.

“Oh Kayde! What on earth are we going to do?” I asked, trying to find out how to fix this, how to get in touch with my grandparents. “We need to get back to my house; my father would know what to do.”

“No, we can’t go to your father’s.” He answered “First of all, it’s not safe for either of you, and secondly, I look like a damn fog light, if that doesn’t bring attention to us, I don’t know what the hell will.”

I knew he was right and I was incredibly annoyed with it.

“Calm down babe.” He said as he put his hand on my shoulder. “We have to stay calm, remember?”

I took a few deep breaths and leaned back against the couch with my eyes closed so that I could try to figure out some kind of solution.

“Phee, remember when I told you about sex magick?” Kayde asked softly.

“Yes, of course I remember.” I told him. It was right after the most amazing sex I had ever had, why wouldn’t I remember it?

“Well, I knew about it because my parents were pagans. My mother was Wiccan, a Witch, and my father was a Shaman. Although now I understand their magick a bit more clearly.

“My parents were the one’s who taught me about sex magick, well, all magick really. I have their Book of Shadows up there. I like to browse through it sometimes for holidays and such. I remember seeing a spell for summoning Faeries. I’m pretty sure I have everything we’d need, if you’d like to give it a try.”

“Well, why not?” I answered “It’s not just our best bet right now; it’s kind of our only bet as well.”

“Ok, I’ll run upstairs and grab the Book of Shadows and the supplies from up there; will you go in the kitchen at the end of the hall and grab the powdered sugar and a sugar spoon?” Kayde asked.

“Sure babe” I told him “I’ve just got a quick question. What’s a sugar spoon?”

“Um… You know the tiny little spoons that you see people use with sugar bowls?” He explained

“Oh, ok, got it. Powdered ginger and sugar spoon.” I said again, more for myself than for him.

Kayde turned and headed up the stairs and I walked down the hallway, admiring the art as I headed towards the kitchen. I opened each cabinet, finding lovely dishes in most of them. The last few were full of non-perishable food, and then the very last one was full of tons of small jars each full of some kind of herb or spice. They were labeled and organized alphabetically, so it was fairly easy to find the powdered ginger.

Next I started opening drawers looking for the sugar spoon. It was found easily, three drawers into my search. I walked back into the living room and sat on the floor next to the warmth of the fire as I waited for Kayde to get back down stairs. Only a few minutes later Kayde was walking back down the stairs somewhat resembling Santa Clause.

We drove to Kayde’s home in silence, I could tell he wished I would talk to him, but didn’t want to bother me, or force me to talk before I was ready. His hand never left mine, and every chance he got to glance at me, he would. It was obvious that he was worried about me, and curious about what happened. I knew I’d talk to him about it once we got to his house, but I really wasn’t quite ready to delve into my feelings, both at the time of the incident and after the incident as well.

When we finally got to his house and pulled up to the curb, I was so deep in thought that didn’t even realize that the car had even stopped. I didn’t realize Kayde had gotten out of the car until he was on my side of the car and had opened the door. I looked up at him in a daze and wondered what he was standing there for.

“We’re here, let’s get inside, ok Phee?” He prompted me, gently.

I reached to my left and unbuckled the seat belt and leaned over to grab my purse. Kayde took my hand and helped me out of the car and we walked to the front of his house with his arm around my waist in such a way that I wasn’t sure if he was guiding me, holding me up, or if he just wanted to have his arms around me. Either way, it didn’t matter to me. I just wanted to get inside and warm.

Kayde opened the front door and reached in, flicking a light switch next to the door and then letting me walk in. I walked through the door into a beautifully decorated house. The majority of it seemed to be Native American art, with some Asian accents. He also had some lovely art that I couldn’t quite figure out where in the world it would have originated, but was absolutely breathtaking.

“Kayde, your home is absolutely beautiful.” I said so softly that it was more to myself than to my boyfriend.

“Thank you, love.” He answered, his hearing better than expected. “Are you warm enough? I’m sure I have a sweatshirt or something. I mean, it may be big, but if you’re cold…”

“No, thank you, but I’m fine. It’s plenty warm in here.” I answered. “Where did you get all of this art?” I asked him as I wandered through the hallway looking at some of the paintings.

“Well, most of them came from my mother. My parent’s left everything to me in their will when they passed away.” He told me.

“There is one that I’d like you to see though.” He said as he pulled me towards the back of the hallway. “This one, I painted a few months ago.” He said as he opened the door to a room at the end of the hallway.

Behind the door was a small room that had been converted to an art studio. In the middle of the studio was an easel with a canvas that was covered in reds, oranges and yellows. It took minute for my eyes to get accustomed to the darkness, but when they did, what I saw on the canvas, in its full detail, absolutely amazed me. I saw myself, naked, sitting atop a flaming bird that could only be called a phoenix. My skin was red, with a light hint of orange flames behind it, or maybe a better word was under it. My hair was flowing behind me, bright orange. I looked at Phil shocked that he could paint something so intricately detailed and beautiful.

“I told you, I’ve been dreaming about you for months.” He said, sheepishly “This is how you look when I see you in those dreams. Ever since Flora and Syle mentioned that there was no way to know what your specialty was, I knew that this was it.

“When things happened the way they did tonight at the restaurant, I knew it was you.”

“Can we go sit down?” I asked him softly.

“Yes, let’s go in the living room” He answered, as we left his studio.

Kayde took my hand and closed the door behind us and we began walking back down the hallway. I admired all of the artwork in the hallway and saw that a few pieces seemed to be styled similarly to the painting I had seen in Kayde’s studio. As we got into the living room and sat down on the couch, I realized how talented Kayde truly was.

“Kayde? Did you paint some of the stuff in the hallway?” I asked him quietly.

“Yes, I’ve been painting since I was very young.” He answered “The only thing I wanted for my fifth birthday was water colors. That was when my parents decided to change the office into a studio for me.”

“They’re so beautiful.” I told him. “I mean, you could really make some great money with those, I’m sure.”

“Actually, I already do. That’s why I don’t have much hanging around here.” He told me as a slight flush rose to his cheeks.

“Phee? Earlier, in the restaurant?” Kayde asked me “Did you do that on purpose? I mean, the way the flame of the candles leapt up like that? The way the fire in the kitchen started at the same time? Why did you do that?”

“Of course I didn’t do it on purpose!” I told him “Why on earth would I do something like that on purpose? It was just because of the way my dad was ignoring me. I tried to keep myself from crying and letting him hurt my feelings, but it just made me so mad!”

I could feel myself getting upset again and instead of letting my anger rise, I looked at the detail of Kayde’s fireplace instead.

“Does he do that a lot? Hurt your feelings, I mean?” Asked Kayde, referring to my father.

“Not on purpose, he just gets so… Ugh!” I said, feeling exasperated with my father and his grudge against my grandparents. “He can just get so defensive, or offensive, or… He just acts like a complete jerk anytime my grandparents are involved in anything!”

Shockingly to both Kayde and I, the log in his fireplace burst into flames.

We began walking towards the front of the restaurant with my father, grandmother and grandfather. Everyone seemed to be in a fairly decent mood, which was a nice change from my father’s earlier sour mood with my grandparents. If I was lucky, it would stay that way through the next hour or so while we ate dinner.

I had been to Rico’s with some friends from school for the first time last month to celebrate our graduation. It was a wonderfully friendly and classy restaurant run by a sweet old Italian man and his granddaughter. What most people, myself included, loved most about Rico’s was that it wasn’t just a place where the owner was hardly ever seen. Rico was there every day from open till close. He cooked, waited, whatever needed to be done, Rico was there to do it. And he wasn’t just a helpful old man; he was as sweet as pie. When we came in June, a friend of mine didn’t get her order made right and when she asked the waiter about it, Rico himself went back to the kitchen to make it, and instead of just making the order himself, he pulled the original cook over and showed him how to make the dish correctly, never with a negative word.

My grandfather walked in and today, Rico was standing in front seating people.

“Hi there sir. How are you this evening?” He asked my grandfather.

“I’m doing well, yourself?” Replied my grandfather.

“Doing wonderful tonight. Do you have a reservation tonight?”

“Yes, we do, it’s under Rose.” Answered my grandfather.

“Wonderful, looks like you’ve got your full party with you, do you have a preference for seating?” Asked Rico.

“If possible, could you put us somewhere somewhat private?” Asked my grandfather, “We have some important things to discuss, family matters, and we would prefer not to be over heard.”

“Well certainly” responded Rico “That should be easy enough to do.”

He walked us towards the back of the restaurant near the kitchen and around the corner then, much to my surprise, seated us in a closed section of the restaurant.

“Will this work well for you tonight?” He asked my grandfather, “It’s not an open section tonight, so it should stay quiet and private for you, unless we get overly busy.” He explained.

“Yes sir, this is perfect, thank you.” Asked my father, offering to tip Rico, obviously not noticing that he was the owner of the restaurant.

“Oh, thank you sir, but please, allow me to respectfully decline.” Rico said to my grandfather “Family talk is an important and often private affair, I’m honored that you chose my restaurant for it.

“Here are your menus, I’ll be back in a few minutes to take your orders, would you like anything to drink?”

“I think we’ll do fine with waters around the table please, sir.” Answered my grandfather.

After Rico had walked away, my grandfather looked around the table from my father to me, to Kayde, and finally at my grandmother.

“Now, Albert, I know that this is an uncomfortable subject for you, but tonight, we are here to have a talk about Phee, and Kayde, coming into their powers.” My grandfather said, looking at my father. “I hope that, as her father, you have enough concern for your daughter’s future to fight through your discomfort.”

“Yes, I will, I’ve had time to prepare myself for this conversation, so I think I can handle it.” Answered my father, glaring back at my grandfather.

“Now, first things first” Started my grandfather “Albert, I know that you, as well as Flora and I, were hoping the Phee’s skin wouldn’t change to much, however, today, both Phee and Kayde have witnessed Phee’s skin changing to a red color, momentarily. As far as her power goes, we don’t know what this means, but we do know that it means that her skin will be red in color. We all know your preference to appear normal to your neighborhood, for obvious reasons. The problem is that red is rather obviously not a normal color. The fact that she is already changing in color means that it will happen very soon. I’m not sure if Raven talked to you at all about the way things would happen for Phee, but before she learns her glamour, she must learn her power.”

“So what you’re trying to say is that she’s going to be red until after she learns her power?” Asked my father.

Before Syle could answer, Rico came back to take our orders and bring us our water. Kayde and I decided to share a large appetizer platter, my father ordered spinach lasagna, my grandmother chose a ceaser salad with chicken, and my grandfather ordered mushroom garlic linguine. Rico collected our menus and left to go turn in our orders.

“To answer your question rather bluntly Albert, yes.” Said my grandfather quietly, “An even bigger problem is that as a Faery, and Kayde, I hope you’re paying attention as well, once Phoenix fully changes color, she will also be fully in her power, and in order to learn her power, she has to be outside, in a natural setting. It’s not something she can learn inside a house.”

“So you mean that when she starts trying to learn her power, she has to be outside?” Asked my father “Meaning that there’s really no way to hide this from our neighbors?”

“Well, yes and no.” Answered my grandmother, “There’s a way around everything. For instance, she could practice her power outside, late at night; problem is that if she ends up becoming a Flower specialty, like I am, she’ll be hard pressed to practice in the dark. We really won’t be able to come up with a game plan for either of them until we know more about their power.”

“Ok, well, I guess this is really a talk that we should have later on, once we know more about their power.” Said my father, looking relieved. “Is that all we have to talk about?”

“Oh, not at all,” Said my grandmother “That was just one fo two things we wanted to bring up. Another thing we wanted to talk about was more for the kids than for you though. When you come fully into your power, you need to be aware that it will be very hard to control and they will be tied closely to your emotions. When I came into my powers, I couldn’t be anywhere around plants while in a bad mood because it would kill them. I couldn’t go into public either because whenever I saw something that made me smile or made me happy, plants around me would begin to grow!”

“And when I came into my power as well, things were difficult.” Said Syle, “You’ve heard the expression, a cloud following you wherever you go? Well, I literally had to deal with a cloud following me. In a good mood, there would be soft snow fall all around me. Everything I passed would end up with a light layer of frost covering it. I couldn’t go anywhere near plants that weren’t winter hardy, because they’d always die. When I was in a bad mood though, it was the worst. The soft snowfall was virtually a snowstorm. The light layer of frost would turn so severe that I would sometime break windows.”

“So you mean to tell me, that these kids aren’t going to be able to go anywhere until they’ve mastered this, this magic?” Asked my father, his voice harboring more than a bit of annoyance.

“Honestly Albert, it’s highly possible that they’ll have a hard time out in public.” My grandmother said gently “But it’s also possible that it won’t be so difficult. Maybe Kayde will just be a thought Faery and all that will happen is that he’ll jumble or clarify people’s thoughts.

“There are a lot of different specialties out there, we just have to have time, once again to let the kid’s come fully into their powers.”

“This is ridiculous!” My father said loudly, shocking us all “How can you restrict these children this way? If you had known your place when Raven died and left my daughter alone, none of this would be happening right now. My daughter never would have slept with this guy and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

“You’re ruining my child’s life, and you expect me to just sit around and accept that?” My father finished, as he glared back and forth at my grandparents.

My breath caught in my throat and I nearly started crying. No! I thought to myself. I will not cry over this. He will not ruin my night again.

“Dad?” I said quietly.

“Just because she’s nearly eighteen doesn’t mean she’s not a child.” My father said.

“Dad?” I said again, a bit louder, breathing deeply as I tried to breathe deeply and keep myself calm.

“She doesn’t know the first thing about any of this. You know what? Fuck this! I’m leaving. I refuse to sit by idly and watch you people try to brainwash my child!” Said my father, standing up.

“DAD!” I said again, nearly shouting, as I stood up.

At that moment, four things happened. The candle centerpieces flared up almost three feet, there was a large racket in the kitchen that consisted of some yelling and what sounded like pots and pans crashing, a few second afterwards, the smoke alarm in the restaurant started buzzing loudly and the over head sprinklers came on, and then Rico came running to our table.

“I’m so sorry, but there is a fire in the kitchen, we have to evacuate the restaurant.” He informed us, giving us a few seconds to gather our belongings and then hurrying us to the emergency exit.

As we stood outside of the restaurant I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that the candles, the noise in the kitchen, it all seemed to happen when I lost my temper with my father. I looked up at my family and saw that my grandmother, my grandfather, and Kayde all seemed to be looking at me. My grandfather leaned towards Kayde and whispered something to him that I couldn’t hear.

“You’re right. I’ll take her around the back. Thank you for dinner, we’ll see you soon.” He said to my grandfather as he took my hand.

“Phee, baby, we’ve got to get you out of here.” He said to me pulling me further down the alley.

“What? What about my family? Can’t I at least say good bye to them?” I asked, confused as to why we were leaving so suddenly.

“You can call them from the car.” He told me sternly.

“What?” I asked annoyed. “Why?” I asked annoyed.

“You’ll see when you get in the car, for now, we have to go Phee, trust me.” He said to me.

We walked around the back of the building and headed to his car. He opened the door for me as always and waited for me to get myself situated before closing the door. The strange thing was that this time he seemed to be blocking me from looking outside of the car. After he had walked around to his side of the car and gotten in the car I looked at him.

“Now can you tell me why we had to leave without even giving me time to say good bye to my family?” I asked.

As an answer, Kayde reached up and flipped down the sun visor in front of me and opened the mirror. As I looked up, I saw a face staring back at me, wide eyed. Even though the face I saw was my own, it was still unfamiliar to me. The face I was used to seeing in the mirror was lightly tanned from all of my work in the garden, but the one I saw was red, and not the light red that looked almost pink that I had seen earlier in the day, but a much stronger, more vivid red, that seemed to be almost glowing. My usually long dark brown hair seemed to be turning bright orange from the roots down to the ends. I turned to Kayde with questioning eyes, worrying about whether or not I had been seen like this.

“That’s why we had to leave my dear, and why we leave the way we did.” He answered my unasked question.

As I got to the middle of the stairs, I realized that there was something strange going on. No one was talking in the living room. If nothing else, I was sure Kayde and my grandparents would at least be in the middle of some kind of unnecessary chit chat. As I rounded the corner into the living room, I could see what the problem was. It seemed my father had gotten back home from shopping around the same time as Kayde had gotten back. Instead of my father getting back a bit after Kayde and walking in on a conversation that was already taking place, they got there at the same time and neither of them knew what to start talking about.

Chuckling to myself about how shy they both are, I decided to break the silence.

“Well look at that, my two favorite guys made it back home” I said smiling as I walked over to the love seat to sit next to Kayde.

“That’s a lovely dress Phee,” Said my father “When did you get that? I’ve never seen you in it before.”

“Grandma and Grandpa gave it to me” I told him.

“It was Raven’s favorite dress when she was younger.” Said Flora to my father, “Anytime we went out, she’d wear it, if it was appropriate.”

“Well dear ones” Said my grandfather, as he began to stand up “I can’t be the only one in the house who is hungry, can I?”

“No sir.” Said Kayde, standing and offering me his hand for support.

“Ever the gentleman.” Said Flora laughing “He reminds me of you when we were at that age.” She said, looking at my grandfather.

“Does anyone mind Italian? I know that you and Kayde had French last night, right?” Syle asked looking at the rest of us.

“Italian sounds delicious.” My father said to my grandfather.

“Mr. Woodland?” Said Kayde as we were standing on the porch waiting for my father to find his keys and lock the door.

“Kayde, there’s no need to be formal, you can call me Al.” My father said with a tone so friendly that it almost made me question his motives.

“Ok then, Al. I was wondering if you had any plans to spend time with Phee tonight.” Kayde half asked. “I was hoping to take her to go see a movie, if you didn’t have any plans.”

“No sir” Answered my father “After dinner, she’s all yours. Just behave yourselves.” He said, as we all headed down the walkway to the cars, laughing at his joke that I didn’t find very funny at all.

“Thanks Al, and don’t worry, I’ll treat her with the utmost respect.” Kayde assured my father as I glance at him with a raised eyebrow.

“So in that case, Kayde, you and Phoenix can ride in your car.” Said my grandfather “Albert, I know that you’re not exactly comfortable with Flora and I, so I guess that means we’ll all drive our own car and meet up at Nico’s?”

“Sounds like a plan” Answered my father.

Once again, Kayde held his car door open for me and waited for me to get in the car and closed the door after me.

As we pulled away from the curb, a question popped into my mind that I was surprised that I hadn’t asked about before.

“Kayde?” I started off slowly, trying to decide exactly how to word the question without hurting him. “I was wondering, what were you doing out so late on a Thursday night?”

“It’s the weirdest thing.” He told me “I went to bed at eight o’clock that night; I was exhausted from working early that morning.

“I fell asleep much quicker than I had expected and I dreamt of you the whole time. You looked the way I told you, red skin, and bright orange hair. For some reason, I woke up at eleven o’clock. Wide awake, not even a bit drowsy. For some reason, I felt an urge to go for a walk.

“That was out of the ordinary, but not too much. What really threw me off was that when I started walking, I ended up turning corners that I never really walked along when I took my walks. I had never been to the block that your father’s office is on. I just kind of ended up there.” He finished up as we pulled into the parking lot of Nico’s.

“Kayde, dear, do you mind if we talk about this more after we leave?” I asked him. “It’s just, it’s pretty amazing from my end, and I’m curious about your end.”

“Of course babe.” He answered as we began to get out of the car.

Kayde leaned up against his car and pulled me in front of him and wrapped his arms around me as we waited for my father and grandparents to pull into the parking lot.

“You know, what your grandmother, what Flora said last night, about having to have strong feelings for the Half Blood you sleep with?” He said softly in my ear. “It’s true. I mean, I’m sure it was obvious to you, I just wanted to say it out loud, you know?

“I mean, I’m not in love with you or anything yet. But I’m pretty sure that that is all it is, a yet, because I can definitely see myself with you for a long time, maybe forever.” He finished as he leaned forward and kissed my cheek.

He had completely taken me by surprise. I had been thinking about the way we felt about each other and wondering if I should bring it up for hours now. I never expected him to be the first one to say something about it. It’s always rare for a guy to come out with something like that. It was obvious even before he brought up his feelings for me that Kayde wasn’t the average guy, so I’m not sure why it threw me off so much, but I was absolutely speechless for a few seconds.

As I took a couple of deep breaths, Kayde turned me around so that I was facing him. “I didn’t mean to freak you out. I just figured that since you and I knew the same information, it wouldn’t be a big deal.” He said, looking at me with worried eyes.

“Oh Kayde, it’s not that you freaked me out. I was just surprised. Most guys wouldn’t have been the one to bring something up like that, you know?” I explained to him “I mean, you’re nothing like any guy I’ve ever dated, it’s wonderful, and refreshing and, you know, I don’t think forever with you would be such a bad thing either.”

Kayde leaned forward and kissed me softly on the lips just as my father was pulling into the parking lot. “I sure hope you mean that.” He said, winking at me and pulling away as my grandparent pulled into the lot as well.

I walked through the back door and started up the stairs. I can not believe how much things have changed in the past forty eight hours. I thought to myself. I went from a single, normal almost eighteen year old girl to a half human half faery magical being with a boyfriend.

I couldn’t stop thinking about what my grandmother had said about Kayde, and how he felt about me. I’ve been with guys who cared about me, of course, but never one like Kayde. He had just met me not even two full days ago, but he was so sweet and generous and caring. I loved the way he took the time to plan out a twenty minute drive to take me to me to find my grandparents, it had blown my mind. The way he brought me a whole rose bush instead of cut flowers, because he knew I liked plants, but didn’t know if I liked cut flowers made my heart melt. The way he ate me out, determined to give me an orgasm before we even had sex, made me… Well, let’s not talk about how that particular situation made me feel.

I couldn’t stop thinking about how strange it felt to call Flora and Syle my grandmother and grandfather, knowing that physically, they look no older than I. It was easier to think of them as my grandparents, refer to them as my grandmother and grandfather while they were using their glamour, but even then, I couldn’t stop thinking about the way I had seen them the night before. The smooth, tight skin wouldn’t leave eyes. I knew that one day it would be easy and that I would be used to it, but that day certainly wasn’t today.

I couldn’t stop thinking about how my father was reacting, I kept expecting him to blow up over it, and I expected it to happen soon. My father hated anything out of the ordinary, with the exception of my mother, apparently. I knew that once I truly started changing, once my powers came, once I started acting more, well, Fae, he would hate it. I know he was keeping me from my grandparents to avoid me learning from them and becoming more like them, thinking that if he kept me from them, I would stay normal, the way he wanted me to.

My father was a rather hot tempered man, and I knew that even if it didn’t happen now, soon, he would blow up over this and try to blame someone. It was most likely that he would try to blame my grandparents and say that if they just hadn’t kept in contact with me this wouldn’t be happening. In my mind, the only person that could be blamed was my father himself. He knew my mother was a Faery, and so he knew that any child they had would be half Fae as well.

To be honest, I just couldn’t stop thinking. Thoughts were whirling through my mind one after another and before I even realized it, I noticed that I had already taken a shower and was wrapped in a towel and heading back to my room to pick out a nice outfit for dinner. I wanted to wear something sexy, since Kayde was there, but still classy, since I was going out with my father, Syle and Flora as well.

I started rifling through my closet and pulling dresses out. I had sexy, and I had classy, and hell, I even had elegant, but sexy and classy? I couldn’t find anything. Just when I was almost to the end of my closet, there was a knock on my door. I opened my door and found a box on the floor with a folded note taped to the top.

I picked the box up and opened up the note.

Flora,

Hope not to be over stepping any boundaries, but we thought you might like to wear this. It was your mother’s favorite dress when she was your age. We hope you like it. And we hope you don’t mind us sabotaging your wardrobe.

Flora and Syle

P.S.

Don’t worry; your wardrobe will go back to normal if once you decide whether or not to wear the dress.

I opened up the large white box and in it was the most amazing dress I had ever seen. I pulled the dress out and laid it flat on my bed, admiring it. It was a short, black V Neck dress with small leaf skeletons embroidered on the bodice, inside of each leaf was a very thin white fabric that made the leaves seem gray. The skirt of the dress was made to look like it was made out of nothing but raven or crow feathers layered one upon another down to about two or three inches above my knee. The minute I saw it, I had decided to wear it to dinner. I loved the black and gray of the bodice and the blue-black color of the raven feathers.

I slid the dress over my head and it slid down my body like silk. I went to my jewelry box and put on a black pearl necklace that my mother had left for me that had a small tear drop shaped piece of onyx hanging from it. I opened the drawer that had all of my earrings in it and pulled out the pair of matching onyx earrings. I left my wrists and hands bare of jewelry. I pulled my hair up into a ponytail and curled it just enough to add a soft wave to the bottom of my hair.

Now that my hair and jewelry we taken care of, I pulled out my make up and dumped it over my bed. For my eyes I chose a black eyeliner and mascara, a glittery tan base shade, which I swept over my entire eye lid up to my eyebrows, a grey shade for my eye lid and a navy blue color to add a smoky look to the corners of my eyes. To the top, I lightly brushed some loose clear glitter to give my eyes a shimmer. For my lips, I chose a soft pink color to help draw attention to my eyes and keep me from looking way too made up.

As I was adding a shimmery powder to my face, neck and chest I heard a knock at the door. Knowing that it was near six by this time, I figured it was going to be Kayde. I finished with the powder quickly and rushed down stairs.

After setting down our flats, Kayde and I walked to the shed to get some gardening tools, which for one reason or another, I seemed to collect, and so I had more than enough for the four of us. As Kayde and I came out of the shed with a trowel in each hand, Flora looked at us and laughed.

“You dear, dear children. Do you honestly expect a flower faery to use a trowel?” She asked with a twinkle in her eye “I’m the kind of woman who likes to get her hands dirty!” She said, digging into the dirt.

“I prefer to stay clean, myself” Said Syle as he grabbed one of the trowels.

Kayde and I picked one up as well and started digging on the other side of the row that Flora and Syle had started on.

“You know” said Syle “You’re at quite an advantage having your grandmother here to help with the planting.”

“Why’s that?” Asked Kayde

“Let me show you.” Replied Flora.

Once her hole was big enough she pulled a basil plant out of its pot. Holding on to the base of the plant in one hand, she held it in the air in front of her eyes and stared intently for a moment. As we watched, the roots that had been wrapped around the large clump of soil seemed to move. At first I just assumed that I was seeing things, but then the roots began to twist and unwind from the dark moist soil. Kayde and I leaned forward as we watched Flora set the plant in the ground and watched as the roots pressed themselves against the walls of soil, burying themselves in the dirt. Softly, Flora pushed the pile of dirt towards the base of the plant, filling the empty spots with the soil.

For a moment, the two of us were silent as we processed that what we had just seen was real, impossible as it may have seemed.

Finally, I asked Flora “How did you do that?”

“Well, that’s part of my specialty, but with practice, it’s something every faery can learn to do.” She answered. “I can do it without words by communicating to the plant that its roots are safer and better off unwrapped from the soil and pressed into the earth.

“Now if you, or Kayde were to learn to do that, you would have to spend everyday taking care of these plants to teach them they can trust you and talking to the plants so that they know your voice and spirit. Once you do that, when you tell them they are safer and better off, they’ll listen to what you tell them and take it into consideration.”

“What do you mean? Plants can think?” Asked Kayde

“Oh yes” Answered Syle “Every single natural thing on our earth has a spirit and can think, trust and worry the same way that we can.”

“Now, since you know the secret to talking to plants, let me show you part of what is in fact part of my specialty…” Flora said, as she began to giggle.

She stood up and walked around the garden. “First, I have to make sure that I don’t put any strain on the plant by asking them if they feel strong and healthy.” She found a portion of the garden that she liked and stood in front of it. “These ones say that they are feeling strong and healthy, but could use a bit of a boost, that’s what I’m here for.” She said to us.

She began a low hum, almost too soft for me or Kayde to hear. As her humming grew louder, she kneeled down on the dirt and leaned forward, placing her hands on the ground over her head. Kayde and I watched her, curious and silent, trying to see what she was doing.

“No sweet one, watch the plants.” Said Syle quietly.

As we looked to the plants, we both gasped. Right in front of us, my garden was growing; we watched what seemed to be a week, possibly two weeks of growth right in front of our eyes. New stems, new leaves and new flower buds began to shoot out right before our eyes. One of my basils, which had not been growing well since I planted it in early May filled out before my eyes, turning from what looked like a branch stuck in the ground to a small bush.

Kayde and I were shocked with what we had seen, leaving both of us momentarily speechless. We looked back and forth from each other to the plants to my grandmother, trying to decide whether or not we should believe what we had just seen.

“Don’t worry kids” Said my grandfather. “In a few weeks, none of this will be surprising to you in the least. Which reminds me…

“In a week or so, maybe sooner, the two of you will start looking differently. Now, Kayde, I’m not sure about you, however I do know that Albert is not much one for calling attention to himself. The problem is that soon, it seems, Phoenix will be red, and she’ll have to stay that way for at least a little while until she knows how to use her glamour.”

“Oh goodness!” I said “I didn’t think about that. Neither has dad, of course, but he’s going to hate that! Oh Flora, what on Earth will we do?”

“Oh, don’t you worry your pretty little head off one bit” My grandmother reassured me. “Syle and I will figure something out as soon as we can.”

After a few moments of silence, Kayde stopped working and looked up at Syle “Why do you think her skin’s already doing these color flashes and mine isn’t?” He asked, seeming more curious than worried.

“Well, it’s highly possible that yours has actually been doing the color flashes, as you put them, but that your color will be similar to the current color of your skin. I mean, look at me, or Raven, although we were both born with our color, could you imagine trying to catch your skin changing from its current color to mine?”

“Or my mom’s” I reminded Kayde, “My mother’s skin was exactly the same color, the only difference was that it had a shimmer to it.”

“Don’t worry Kayde” said my grandmother “The fact that your skin hasn’t had any changes in color will actually make it much easier for you not only to fit in as it happens, but to learn your glamour as well.”

“Lucky bastard” I said, jokingly.

Kayde laughed and tossed a small handful of dirt into my lap. “Watch it girly.” He said laughing.

As we started on the last flat of plants, I realized it was starting to cool off which meant it was probably around five o’clock, if not after. I looked up and saw that the sun quite a bit lower than I expected it to be.

“Kayde, do you have your phone?” I asked, hoping I still had enough time to get ready without rushing.

“Sure babe, what’s up?” He asked.

“I was wondering what time it was. We’re supposed to be leaving around six, remember?” I reminded him, realizing that just maybe, gardening was not exactly the best choice before dinner.

“Oh yea, it’s um, four thirty seven.” He told me. “I guess we’ll have to save the rest of these for tomorrow. I’ve got to go home and at least change my pants, although a shower and full change of clothes would be nice, time allowing.”
“Don’t worry son, we won’t leave without you. Go ahead and take your time.” My grandfather told him.

Kayde got up and dusted his pants off and gathered up the trowels and took them to the side of the house to rinse them off with the hose. When he was out of hearing distance I leaned toward my grandmother and asked what I had been wondering since earlier.

“Last night, what you said about how a half blood comes into their power?” I started off “You said that they have to have strong feelings for the other half blood? Does that mean that Kayde feels the same way for me that I feel for him?”

“Well dear,” My grandmother said softly “The feelings don’t actually have to be positive, it could be strong feelings of hate, but seeing the way he hangs around you and looks at you definitely says that strong hate is not the case here.”

As I stood up and turned to walk toward Kayde I saw he was already almost back to us.

“I’m going to head home now babe, I’ll be back around six o’clock, ok?” He asked me.

“Yea, that sounds good. I think I need to head upstairs and start getting myself ready as well.” I told him, giving him a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

After my father had left I remembered the plants in Kayde’s back seat and all the letters and cards that my grandparents had sent talking about the different things they had planted that spring or summer and such.

“Would you guys like to help Kayde and I plant some stuff in the garden?” I asked Syle and Flora.

“Oh dear one, we’d love to! We can show you some tricks too.” Said Flora with a wink.

As the four of us walked out to the car, Kayde asked his first question about being a Half Blood.

“So, this whole ‘glamour’ thing? Is that something Phee and I will be able to do?”

“Yes”, said Syle “You will, of course, it will take practice, like everything else, your specialty will come first, and faster, the other stuff, like everything else in life, takes time.”

We got to the car and each took one flat of plants and headed to the back yard. As we were walking, Kayde stopped for a minute and just started to stare at me.

“What is it babe?” I asked him, confused.

“Nothing… I just thought I saw something.” He said, still looking confused.

“Like what?” Asked Flora.

“Nothing, it was just a trick of the light or something, I’m sure.” He answered and kept walking.

“Kayde?” I said his name somewhat softly. “What did you see?”

He looked at me with eyes that seemed to be full of worry or confusion, but I wasn’t sure which.

“Your skin. It was… Well, red.” He said, giving me a strange look. “Just for a second though, nothing to worry about, I’m sure.”

“Red skin, you said?” Asked Syle. “I know it seems impossible boy, but you saw us last night, my skin as pale as snow, Flora’s green as leaves. Phee’s red skin could give us an insight into what her specialty will be.”

“Earlier, when I was sitting on the porch, I thought I saw my skin turn red as well. I thought I was just seeing things, so I wrote it off as nothing.” I told Syle, Flora and Kayde. “You think this means my specialty will have to do with something red?” I asked.

“Not think dear one, we know.” Said Flora “For now, why don’t we go into the back yard and plant and talk.” She said, as she began walking again.

Syle, Kayde and I all followed her around the side of the house to the back yard.

Even though I had figured it would have been Kayde when I opened the door, I was pleasantly surprised to see his playful smile and mischievous eyes looking back at me.

“Phee, I’ve done something horrible.” He told me. “But now I don’t feel quite so bad, knowing that you forgot all about your roses!”

“Oh Kayde, I didn’t forget about them, I’m planning to plant them today.” I told him laughing. “I just haven’t had a chance yet since we’ve got company.”

“Oh? Should I be worried?” He asked me.

“No, not at all. At least, I don’t think so.” I answered, hoping he wasn’t still uncomfortable with my grandparents. “What exactly is this terrible thing you’ve done?

“Oh, um… come to the car with me real fast.” He said, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards his open passenger door.

“Kayde, I can’t go anywhere with you. I have no shoes on and there are people in my house trying to spend time with me.” I hissed at him.

“We’re not leaving. Just look in the back seat.” He told me.

I leaned over into the car and saw flats and flats of different herb, fruit and vegetable plants.

“Oh Kayde! Are these?” I stopped myself before asking, afraid that I would end up making an assumption that wasn’t accurate.

“Yes sweetness, they’re for you.” He answered, putting his arms around me. “You probably have some of it, but there’s nothing wrong with expanding a garden, is there?”

“No!” I exclaimed. “Not at all! Not ever!”

“Alright, I think I’ve kidnapped you long enough, shall we go back inside with your visitors? I’m sure your father is dying to meet me as well.”

Kayde draped his arms around my shoulders and we walking back to the house. As we got up onto the porch, we could hear arguing.

Oh no. Already? I thought to myself, knowing exactly what had happened, I broke into a run into the house and Kayde chased me in.

“You think that just because she’s like you, you can take her under your wing and teach her all your weird crap? I’m not letting my daughter turn into some kind of weird ass dirt worshipper!” Yelled my father. “I am not going to allow you to corrupt-”

I rushed between my father and my grandparents as Kayde stayed standing at the entrance to the living room. “I don’t know how this happened, nor do I even care, but you guys will NOT argue around me.” I said in a firm voice. “Dad, I’d like you to meet Kayde. Kayde, this is my father, Albert.”

“Nice to meet you, sir.” Said Kayde, obviously feeling a bit out of place and uncomfortable.

“You too son.” Replied my father, obviously still seething about what ever had taken place while I was outside with Kayde. “I understand my daughter is rather taken with you, so I figured I should stick around and meet you.”

Kayde moved to my grandparents and offered his hand to Syle. “It’s nice to meet-”

“Didn’t we do this part last night?” Asked my grandfather, laughing as I realized Kayde wasn’t familiar with my grandparents in their glamoured forms.

“Kayde, that’s Syle” I told him. “And that’s Flora. They used their glamour to come and visit with us today. They’d like to take us out to dinner tonight, are you free?”

“Yea, I don’t have any plans today other than seeing how long it will take of me hanging around before you kick me out.” He said, laughing at his own joke.

“I think now’s a good time for the shopping. I’ll be back by six o’clock for dinner, sound good?” Asked my dad.

“Yes, six sounds fine” Said Flora to my father kindly.

I sighed; disappointed that it would be that much longer before I got to see Kayde. I turned and headed up the stairs with a sigh. When I got to the top of the stairs I heard another knock at the door.

“Just a moment” I heard my father shout downstairs. He was probably sticking his food in the microwave or something to keep it from attracting flies. I heard muffled voices downstairs and hoped that my father wasn’t giving my new boyfriend the third degree. Or bringing up what I had told him last night.

Mortified I grabbed a pink tank top and a pair of jean shorts and pulled them on over my bra and panties. As I ran down the stair I heard a woman’s voice that sounded familiar but I just couldn’t place a name to the voice.

As soon as I got to the bottom of the stairs and turned into the living room I realized the voice. I couldn’t place it because it was a voice I hadn’t heard in almost sixteen years. It was the voice my grandmother used to use when she would come to visit. The one she used when she used her glamour.

“Phee, look who came to visit.” Said my father in a tone that sounded like clenched teeth.

“Flora! Syle!” I said, surprised and excited. “What are you two doing here?”

Flora turned to me to explain. “Well, seeing as we never really got along with your father, we thought it would be best to come and visit with the two of you before your party so that we wouldn’t have to worry about 16 years of awkwardness coming around to visit at your eighteenth birthday party.”

“So, where’s our boy Kayde?” Asked my grandfather.

“Oh, he’s going to come over later.” I told him.

“Oh, I see”, said Syle, “Do the three of you have any plans tonight?” He asked, turning to my father as I sat down in one of the chairs in our living room.

“Not that I know of, do we, Phoenix?”

“No, we don’t, I didn’t have anything planned at least.”

“Flora and I were thinking that we could all go out to lunch or dinner tonight.” He said with a smile.

“Well, I’m sure that Kayde and I would love that, Dad, would you come with us?” I answered before my father could turn down their offer.

“Of course.” He said. “It will have to be dinner tonight though; I need to do some shopping today, for the house and for the party.”

“Sounds good to me.” Said Flora, my grandmother. “While you’re shopping, I’m sure that there are things Phoenix and Kayde want to talk to us about.”

“Yes, there are! At least on my end!” I said enthusiastically. “Like, I guess it’s more of an observation then a question but what you said about a half blood coming into their power. Does that mean tha-”

“Not that this isn’t interesting” Interrupted my father. “But it all still freaks me out a little bit, could we maybe avoid the faery talk until after I’ve gone shopping?”

I laughed at my father’s weak tolerance for anything out of the ordinary and agreed. We sat in the living room for a bit and talked about things, starting with weather, and then continuing on to food, which seemed to be the topic of choice for all four of us. We talked about favorite foods and least favorite foods, even foods we loved to eat but hated to cook. For me, it was fudge. I could eat fudge every day, but hated to cook it. As we talked and laughed, there was another knock at the door and I stood up to go answer it, assuming this time, it was Kayde.

The morning sun was bright and warm, the way it should be in the middle of July. I woke up much earlier than I expected, probably because I went to sleep at midnight but to me, it felt more like two in the morning. Dad was still asleep, so I decided to get up and make some food.

I pulled my robe on and headed down stairs to the kitchen. It was incredibly warm in the house so I walked around opening the windows and then decided to open the door as well. It seemed quiet and peaceful outside so instead of breakfast, I made myself a nice pot of Mint Magic tea and sat outside on the porch swing listening to the birds. Everything seemed different today. Calmer, quieter, and happier. Even the birds seemed to be singing a different song.

I sat drinking my tea and thinking about last night. Apparently, I was a Faery. Well, I was half Faery. What my specialty was, so to speak, I didn’t yet know, but according to my grandparents, I would soon enough. And so would Kayde. I realized that seeing as I couldn’t come into my powers without the help of another Half Blood who I had strong feelings for, it was the same for Kayde, which meant he had strong feelings for me as well. It wasn’t until that thought popped in my head that I realized at some point today, Kayde would be coming over, and to the best of my knowledge, my dad would probably be home.

I looked at my watch to see what time it was and for just a moment, my skin looked as though it had a slight reddish tint to it. Inspecting my arm closely, I decided that there was no way my arm had been red. It must have been a trick of the light, or my eyes, or mind, or well, something, because I was very obviously not turning red.

I picked up my tea pot and cup and headed back into the house for breakfast. After setting the pot and cup down on the counter I opened my refrigerator and started searching for something to cook up. After a through hunt of the fridge and kitchen I decided that the most sensible dinner would probably be an omelet. I pulled 3 eggs off of the door and some pepper jack cheese off the shelf and set the two on the counter. I pulled out some mushrooms, onions and garlic and sautéed them in some butter. As they were cooking, I chopped some thyme, chives, oregano and basil in the food processor and then mixed them with the eggs. Once the mushrooms, onions and garlic were done, I poured them into a bowl and then poured the eggs into the pan. After letting the eggs thicken up a bit I sprinkled a bit of pepper jack cheese over the eggs, then poured the mushroom, onions and garlic onto half of the pan and covered them with a pile of pepper jack cheese and flipped the other half of the egg over the pile of veggies and cheese. The minute I took the omelet out of the pan and sprinkled a bit of cheese and hot sauce over the top, I heard my dad coming down the stairs.

“Smells good down here Phee, what’s for breakfast?” He asked.

“Well”, I told him “I just made myself an omelet with mushrooms and onions and garlic.”

“And nothing for your dear old Dad, huh kid?” He asked laughing.

“Nope. Nothing. Because someone, who shall remain nameless, forgot to do the grocery shopping again.” I told him teasingly, “Someone who has been in charge of the shopping for the past sixteen years, might I add…

“By the way, here’s the list for the party. Next weekend, remember?” I told him, hoping we wouldn’t have a situation like my sweet sixteen where he had to rush out the morning of and buy food and cook all day.

As I was heading into the living room to eat, there was a knock on the door. I handed my dad the omelet and winked at him. “Just so you know, this is a bribe to buy food today…” I told him as I headed for the door. “This is probably Kayde, so be nice.” I nearly begged.

“Wait. Phee, if that’s Kayde, shouldn’t you put some clothes on?” Asked my father.

I rolled my eyes. “Did you just forget everything I said last night?” I asked him.

“No, I purposely blocked it out. Please put some clothes on before you make me remember.” He said, setting down the plate and walking to the door. “Don’t make me invoke my parental rights, kid.” He said walking past me.

“Dad, you awake?” I called, the minute I got through the door.

The house was still lit up so I assumed he was in the living room watching TV or something. I walked into the living room and saw dad spacing out on some detective show.

“Dad? I need to talk to you about something.” I said, turning off the TV.

“Oh, I’m sorry dear, what is it?” He asked, sitting up and looking at me.

“It’s about my birthday dad… And my grandparents.” I added on as an after thought.

“Oh Phoenix. Can’t we talk about this another time?” He said, sounding exasperated. “How was your date?”

“I don’t want to talk about my date, or Kayde, or planning the birthday party dad, I want to talk about Grandma Grandpa.” I told him firmly.

“Phoenix. Please. Not tonight.” He said, almost pleading.

“Fine, lets talk about Kayde and I then Dad. Let’s talk about our date.” I told him heatedly. He took me up to a hill just out of town and treated to me a French dinner. Afterwards, we ate desert and asked each other questions to get to know each other because we just met last night.”

“Phee! You know better than to go somewhere with someone you don’t kn-”

“Oh, don’t worry dad, it gets better. We sat on a tree branch and watched the sunset and then watched the city lights come on in the city. We ran around and chased each other and acted goofy. He pinned me down on the ground and ate me out for damn near half an hour and then, after wards, we had sex. Yes sir, right there on top of the hill, bare ass naked for anyone to just walk up and watch.

“Oh, and that’s not even the good part! When we came, together, might I add, a huge cone of light shot into the sky from my vagina and his penis. What do you think of that? Not to pleased, it seems. Well, it’s ok, there’s more.

“After we got dressed and got in the car, I thought he was going to bring me home, but no, we drove for twenty minutes to go to a forest. When we got there, we searched for 10 minutes trying to get in the damn gate that surrounded it. We finally found the gate, and got in and searched for at least 15 minutes for a house that SHOULD have been in the forest, according to the address, but wasn’t. By this time, it should be almost eleven, right? Ten forty five, to be accurate.

“Finally, we saw a magical arch that made people disappear when they walked through it. Oh, and in the arch, was a tunnel. So we followed the tunnel and found a door. A door with the address we were looking for. We knocked on the door and met a very nice couple, Flora and Syle, who for some insane reason were convinced that they were fairies.

“Not only were the supposedly fairies, they claimed to be my mother’s parents. Meaning they also claimed to be my grandparents. You know, the ones you never want to invite over so they don’t call attention to us? It makes sense that you would be worried about that since they seem to be in their early twenties and are green with bright yellow hair and pale with silver hair…

“Oh, and even though Kayde and I didn’t seem to get into their house until past eleven and stayed for at least an hour, here it is, eleven seventeen.” I finished and plopped myself down onto the couch and waited for an answer.

The whole time I had been talking, my father had sat there quietly, only listening to my rampage. Now he seemed to be thinking and processing everything I said.

“So, you met them, huh?” He asked. “I suppose that means you know everything? You know they didn’t want your mother to be with me?”

“Yes Daddy, I know all of that. But the important thing is that you lied to me. Kept things from me. Things about Mommy. Things about myself.” I told him softly.

“I know Phee, and I’m sorry. I wanted to protect you; I didn’t want you going to school with kids calling you a freak. I figured if I didn’t tell you, you wouldn’t try to learn how to use your powers or what the hell ever.” He told me.

“It doesn’t work that way though Daddy. If you had just talked to me, just let them talk to me, we both would have known how it works.” I hated that I had to explain this. I hated that I had to have this talk with him, but it had to be done. “In order for any half blood to come into their powers, they have to share and orgasm with another half blood. One who they have strong feelings for.”

“Half blood? Is that what they called you?” Said my father, his voice dripping with disgust.

“Yes Daddy.” I told him calmly. “It’s not a bad term, just a term, like mixed, except it’s not as easy as that, from the way they made it sound.”

“Wait, you mean that this Kayde guy is a half blood too?” My father asked, only at that point understanding what I was saying. “And what? You’ve known this guy over night and you’re in love?”

“No Daddy! We just met, how could I be in love?” I asked, shocked. “I do feel very close, drawn to him. I think one day, I might be in love with him, but not today. I feel like he’s my best friend. Like I could tell him anything.”

For a few minutes, I sat in silence waiting for my father to say something to me about the whole situation. Finally, he looked at me and sighed. “I guess this means you’ve invited them to your birthday party, doesn’t it?” He asked.

“Yes Daddy, I did.” I told him. “And they’re coming.”

“I figured.” He said with a sigh. “Look, Phee, I know this is important to you, but it sure did take a lot out of me. I’m going to get some sleep and if there’s anything else you want to talk about it, we’ll go out to breakfast and chat. Deal?” My father asked as he stood up from the recliner and began to head to the stairs.

“Deal.” I agreed.

“Oh, and Phee?” He said turning towards me at the stairway.

“Yea dad?” I asked, turning to look at him.

“I expect to meet this Kayde guy before your party next week.” He told me.

“Yea, I figured you would.” I said as I got up and headed to my room. “Good night Daddy. Love you”

“Love you too Firebird.”

“Kayde, it’s late, we should get home.” I told Kayde as Flora and I got into the living room.

I hugged Flora and Syle and thanked them both for being so hospitable and helping me understand things. They invited me to come back anytime, and even offered me their car keys incase I couldn’t find a ride back. Of course, Kayde wasn’t having any of that. He was incredibly protective of me for someone who had just met me the night before.

We walked to the car in silence and it wasn’t until he had started the car and pulled away from the gated forest that I decided to say something.

“Kayde?” I started, gently. “Why did you watch out for me so closely back there?”

“I don’t know quite how to explain it. I feel… linked to you, I suppose is the best way to say it.” He answered, sounding genuinely unsure.

“It’s not bad or anything” I said, trying to comfort him. “It’s just curious. I mean, we just met yesterday.”

“Yes, but it seems I’ve known you much longer.” He said softly. “Like I said, I’ve dreamt about you.”

“You were serious about that?”

“Yes, very. For months now, probably since Yule, I’ve been dreaming about you. But, you were different. Your hair was always the color of fire, your skin, always tinted red. Your face, your body, your voice, it was always the same, just the colors were different.

“That’s what was so unnerving about them; their skin was strange, colored, the way yours always is in my dreams.” He explained to me. “I guess that was why I was so quiet; I couldn’t get over the fact that you truly are going to be like those people.” He said, putting his hand over mine.

“Kayde, I have to tell you something,” I said to him nervously “And I probably shouldn’t, and I don’t know if you’re going to like it, and I’m worried you might freak out, so please please don’t be upset or angry, just be open minded.”

“Flora knew about the cone of light we saw earlier. She said that it happened because I was beginning to come into my powers. She told me the only way it could happen is if a half blood, like myself, shared an orgasm with another half blood that they have strong feelings for.” I said quickly, afraid that if I gave him a chance to interrupt, I’d never get a chance to finish.

I was hoping that he wouldn’t be upset, or angry with me, or Flora, or what I was saying she had told me. At first, Kayde said nothing, in fact, for five minutes straight, he was silent and I was afraid that he hadn’t heard me.

“You’re trying to tell me that my parents, they’re like them?” He said slowly.

“Well, yes, probably. I mean, no. I mean one of your parents. Although I suppose they could both be half bloods, like me, which would still make you a half blood.” I said all of this quickly and then noticed that once again, I was blabbing.

“Phee, I know that it’s important to you to find your grandparents. But I just have to ask, do you really and truly think that those people are your grandparents?” He asked me.

“I do, Kayde.” I answered, knowing that I meant it whole heartedly. “They talk like my grandparents do in letters to me. They talk so well of my mother. They knew her, they knew me, and they knew my father. Even the writing in the scrap book and the photo, Kayde, there’s no doubt about it. Flora and Syle are definitely my grandparents.”

“If you believe that they are your grandparents, and that you can trust them, I will trust and believe this story about the light earlier.” He said, looking at me as we pulled up outside of my house. “Do you want me to come in with you?

“No, I have to do this on my own.” I told him as I took a deep breath. “Thank you Kayde, this is the most amazing night I’ve ever had.”

I leaned over the center console to kiss him lightly on the cheek. He turned his head at the last minute and wove his fingers through my hair as he kissed my lips passionately.

“I’ll see you tomorrow beautiful.” He told me. “That is, if you don’t have any plans, of course.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Kayde.” I answered for him, kissing him again softly.

I turned toward the car door and let myself out of the car. My breathing was slow and deep as I summoned the courage to have the conversation with my father that was a long time coming. Hopefully it wasn’t too late and he hadn’t gone to sleep yet. I checked my phone to see exactly how late it was and was shocked to see that it was just barely past eleven o’clock. I was sure that by the time we left the hill it was at least ten. It was as if we hadn’t even visited Flora and Syle at all.