CHAPTER TWELVE

The next four days passed fairly quickly. Burnett was right; he did come to like Shadow Falls. All the students were fairly friendly, excluding the weres and some of the snarky vamps. He had formed a bond with two of his roommates, and even befriended Kylie and her group. Occasionally he would sit at their table at lunch and dinner. Of course, it meant that he had to listen to Della and Miranda's bickering. But no matter how many times they fought, it never got physical; Snow began to wonder if it wasn't their way of communicating. Seeing blood in glasses still made his stomach turn, but it wasn't making him all that wrenched inside anymore. To his surprise, he had even gotten used to the other vampires. It probably had some to do with him being paired up with a few of them during Campmate Hour, which by some universal arrangement had made him spend an hour with a vamp twice in a row. He did take advantage of the activity to learn about the species' respective cultures. So far, he had learned that vampires were physically stronger than weres, whose strengths varied with the phases of the moon; they were only at full power once a month. Steve, the shape-shifter, talked endlessly about Della. Obviously the boy had it badly for the snarky vamp. He did tell a few basic information about his kind, though.

"Our powers vary on different levels; everyone shifts at a rate of their own, some faster than others and some could basically turn into any creature using their imagination," told the shifter.

The information had Snow's eyes pop wide open. His jaw dropped.

Steve went on after a moment. "Half-blood shifters, however, are more limited to changing into something smaller or closer to their size. But the one thing we can't do, and that applies to all shape-shifters, is that we can't change our gender. Meaning, I can't turn myself into a girl."

Unable to help himself, Snow coughed in laughter. When he stopped, he asked another question.

"So what are your kind's rules? I hear most of them are the same to all supernaturals, but there are exclusive ones as well."

Steve shrugged. "Not that many for shifters. But we are forbidden to use our powers in front of humans. For obvious reasons. Others include us being forbidden to hurt our own kind simply by provoked anger. Although the restriction could be really hard sometimes, especially when the other party is good at pissing you off."

Snow recalled the night he and Freddie almost broke out in fight.

"I could see that," he said, and then moved back to Steve's favorite topic: Della.

Though Snow had made new friends at the school, none was the first person he turned to when he wanted to talk about his newfound power over water. He had gone to Burnett the next day after his conversation with Diego. Holiday had been his first choice, but the pregnant fae was busy tending to herself in the bathroom, so Burnett had to be the substitute.

"Have you tried to do it again?" asked Burnett after Snow told him.

He shook his head and answered, "I didn't know how I made it work before, so I haven't tried."

Burnett pointed at the coffee pot in the corner. "Try to focus on the water in the coffee pot," he encouraged. "You should be able to feel the power inside you."

Snow sighed, then, relenting his fear, pointed his hand at the pot. His mind completely focused on moving the water inside.

Nothing happened.

He took a deep breath and focused harder. Focused completely on the water inside the object.

Suddenly the pot began to shake. He could feel the water moving as he imagined it. Expanding his imagination, a strong rush of water burst open the lid and freed the liquid inside. The water collected and formed in a giant bubble floating six feet in the air. Burnett, completely shocked by the magic he was witnessing, stared at the bubble. Snow grinned at his success. As frightening as it was, he was rather excited about the discovery his new power.

A sudden sound of door opening sent fear rushing through Snow like electricity, and he instantly lost focus.

And realized way too late.

The bubble fell and burst... right on Burnett's head. The water splashed everywhere, but mostly covered the vampire's clothes and body, and his desk. Some of it hit Snow, but not as much as Burnett.

"Holy shit," a feminine voice muttered.

Burnett turned to the door with eyes glowing blood red and growled, and then stopped himself at the sight of a laughing Holiday.

Since then, Snow had been afraid to face the vamp headmaster. But despite the excitement, the water-controlling power didn't point out what he was.

That same day, he told all his roommates, including Michael who happened to be present when he came back. The wolf was shocked when Snow showed them his power, though he tried to hide it with a cool expression. Freddie, on the other hand, was openly fascinated and asked questions. Diego seemed to pay even more attention to him than to his power. The way he looked at Snow resembled that of a kid who was given a box of fabulous birthday presents. Not that Snow complained. Since their last private moment, they had been a little closer. They occasionally watched TV together, and Snow had offered to help him with algebra even though it wasn't his forte. Diego declined and even decided to skip the homework altogether.

However, fun time with his new friends wasn't enough to totally stray his mind from concerns about his best bud, Benny. He missed having Benny around, of course, but the lad fell into the category of Snow's old life. And when the old category met the new one, they didn't fit. Also, thinking about Benny brought up his parents: the two people who gave him a family and whom he now had to keep secrets from. Secrets he knew were important to keep but loathed all the same. According to Holiday, not every normal person could accept their child being supernatural, and Shadow Falls served as a means to allow supernatural teens to keep in touch with their families. Snow wondered if he would ever be able to confront his adopted parents about his heritage. He doubted it.

To keep his mind off of Sunday, he accepted Derek's invitation to play basketball with some of the other boys. Early February weather was fairly warm enough for some fun outdoors. Snow, Perry, Diego and the vampire Jonathon grouped together against Freddie, Chris, Derek and Brian.

"All right, let's shoot some hooves," Perry cheered and clapped his hands.

"Yeah!" Freddie shrieked enthusiastically. "We're gonna take ya'll down!"

"Not if we take you first!"

"Yay, Perry!" cheered Miranda, Perry's witch girlfriend.

They played until sweat dripped down some of their foreheads. Snow felt exhilarated, and it felt great. Even more, he felt belonged.

Freddie, Perry and Derek showed their share of sweat and exhaustion. The vampires were the only ones who didn't look one bit winded. Perry was double-blocked by Derek and Brian, so he threw the ball to Diego, who caught it before Chris could intercept it. Diego eyed at Snow as he tried to dash around Chris, and threw the ball directly toward him. He jumped, ready to catch with his hands. Another set of muscular arms blocked his sight... and the elbow hit directly on Snow's nose.

The force of the elbow sent him falling to the ground.

"Ow," he muttered and pressed a hand to his nose. Something that felt like light liquid started running down his lips and his fingers.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" Diego yelled.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to," Freddie apologized.

"You freaking broke his nose." He seethed.

Snow was busy tending to his injury, but when he heard pushing, he instantly looked up. Diego and Freddie were glaring at each other, their eyes glowed a matching red color. Snow realized the color stemmed from rage and violence was seconds away.

He stood up and said, "Hey, hey, hey. Please, don't start. Look, I'll be fine. I'm fine." That's a lie. His slope ached like a hundred needles pricking it as he tried to sound casual. He hoped it wasn't broken, but knew hope was useless.

Derek put one hand on Diego's shoulder and another on Freddie's. Instantly their tension began to diminish. Snow couldn't be sure, but he recalled Holiday doing the same thing right before his fear began to soften. Perhaps faes had that kind of power over people's emotions. And since Derek was half-fae, he might have that effect on people, too. The newly arised suspicion made his fondness of faes drop a level. Faes may be lovely, but the idea of them having power over people's feelings made it uncomfortable to be around them.

Miranda and Jenny came to the field.

"Should I get Kylie?" Miranda asked. "She can heal your nose."

"Oh, I saw her an hour ago. She went to town with Lucas to buy some new supplies," Perry said.

"Oooh, I'll bet," Miranda crooned.

"That's fine, it's just a nose bleed" Snow said, not wanting any more tension. "I think I'll just get back to the cabin and cover it with some cold water."

He started walking away. Diego caught up with him in a sec.

"I'll go with you," he said with a persistent tone. "You look like you could use a band-aid."

Snow wanted to tell him no. The words were right on the tip of his tongue, but his mouth failed to release them. Diego, eyes a golden glow, put a cold arm on his left shoulder and nudged him walked away from the basketball court. His touch may be cold, but it somehow felt warm to the core. It felt even better when his hip touched Snow's side.

He didn't want Diego to let go.

They arrived at their cabin in minutes.

"You sure you don't wanna go back to the game?" Snow asked after settling down on a chair by the kitchen counter while Diego went to get a dry towel. Blood was still running down his nose.

"It's a game, not a competition," Diego countered.

He ran a dry towel over some warm water on the sink then returned to the counter to hand it to Snow. He pressed it to his nose and closed his eyes.

His mind trailed to the water pressed against his nose, totally focused on it. After a moment, his eyes re-opened and saw Diego staring at him with wide eyes. His jaw dropped open.

Oh, God. Did his nose look awful? "What's wrong?" He tried to sound casual. "Did Freddie give me a throughout nose job?"

Diego snorted and shook his head, eyes still wide. "Your nose is completely fine," he said. "I mean, like completely."

Snow stared at him. He pointed to the bathroom. "See for yourself."

He stood up, and walked into the bathroom and looked into the mirror. He saw it. The nose was perfectly healed. Not even a bruise on the skin.

"How did that happen?" he murmured.

"You okay?" Diego's voice sounded at the door.

He hadn't even noticed he was standing there. "Fine. Just befuddled."

When he turned around, their faces met. Diego's eyes spoke of wonder. "You got some serious powers growing inside you, man," he said in an awed voice.

He had no answers for that, but also found Diego's astonishment entertaining. It was the first time he noticed other expressions of the vampire, and he liked it. He looked good with that face. When he smiled, his eyes glowed in a natural way.

Diego leaned in closer. His eye color shifted from dark brown to golden yellow. Snow was so mesmerized by his magnificance that he didn't even know how close they were until he realized he could count Diego's eyelashes. Then he found himself wanting to lean in closer. To k-...

The cabin door opened, and that put an end to their moment. And also put a stop to what he realized now was a ridiculous thought.

"Knock, knock," Freddie said loudly from the door. "Anybody home?"

Diego leaned away as he said, "In the bathroom." The sentence came out almost like a growl. His eyes were still glowing.

Oh, for God's sake, stop! Snow thought and beat himself mentally.

That kind of thought was nothing more than silly.

Oh, brother. Things just couldn't get better, could they. And here he thought he could have more on his plate.

Freddie eyed at them in confusion. "Are you guys okay?" he asked.

Diego leaned away but didn't speak. Neither did Snow.