Chapter Thirteen

"Told myself I'm strong enough to shake it and I'm trying ."
- J Cole


"Mom," Jazmine walked into her parents' bedroom. "Are you there?"

She was. Sarah was sitting up, visibly irritated. She had been working on a case to prove discrimination at Wuncler Headquarters before Jazmine had left. She vaguely remembered hearing her mother mention how the case had gone left, and judging by her mother's facial expression, this wasn't the best time to plead her case. She'd come back tomorrow.

"No." Sarah spoke just as Jazmine was about to walk into the hallway. "That look had nothing to do with you, Jazmine. You should stay." Sarah looked over at her. "We need to talk."

"About what I said. About, you not being my mom…I didn't mean it." Jazmine glanced at her awkwardly, all the anger from their initial confrontation at the restaurant melting away. "I was just confused…and angry. The news really surprised me, and I took it out on you and Dad."

"I know, sweetie." She patted on the bed, signaling for Jazmine to come closer. "Come here."

Once Jazmine sat on the edge near her mother, Sarah let out a loud breath. She looked at the door then back at the girl, nodding her head, then speaking. "Your dad is probably going to be upset that we had this chat without him." She stopped talking for a moment then continued. "But I think that you deserve to know the truth."

Jazmine nodded.

"When I was in my early twenties, I discovered that I couldn't have children." She started. "Your father stayed with me anyway. He was confident that we would adopt when the time was right."

Jazmine's eyes were watering already. She grabbed her mother's hand and squeezed.

"When we found you, you were so tiny and beautiful. Just the sweetest, most loving baby." She smiled. "And we were head over heels in love with you." She looked down. "We'd always planned to tell you the truth about your adoption, but it was difficult to find any information on your parents. We were barely even able to figure out your actual birthday."

She turned to Jazmine and continued. "We found you at the fire station. Crying, upset, and afraid." Sarah stared at her for a moment, sighing. "There was an interracial couple running a few miles away. In the opposite direction. The woman had orange colored hair, like you. And the man was pretty tall, around your father's color, maybe a little darker. We always assumed that they were your parents. The only thing that we know about them is that they were presumed dead years later."

"Do you know why they were running?" Jazmine at least had to play the part of naïve teenager. She couldn't tell them that she had talked to her parents' ghosts.

The vision overshadowed whatever her mother mentioned next. This one was powerful. Like she could almost taste the air where the woman was standing.

"Where is she?" A woman she'd never seen before popped into her mind. Her form was unique. "We've been looking all over for her, and I won't be stopped until I get my way." The woman walked past her father Julian, who was looking around the corner, a smirk crossing his lips. "You've already made the hardest part easy. Just cooperate, and nobody gets hurt."

"Fuck you." Julian snarled. "You won't get away with this. They'll figure it out."

"We'll see about that." The woman said smoothly. She snapped her fingers, and a few people blipped across the cavern that they were in. Demons. "Do your worst until he's ready to be reasonable. I'll be back."

"You won't get away with this!" Julian's yelling was impossible not to hear. His voice roared as he fought against the chains. "You're a sick, evil, bitch, who's gonna rot in hell!"

The woman turned to him for a moment, an eerie grin turning even brighter on her lips. "Nice." She ignored his screams. It'd end for him soon enough. "I hear it's lovely this time of year."

This was working out even better than she'd imagined.

She would finally be able to restore honor to her family's name.

Jazmine's eyes popped open. She pretended to nod attentively as her mother continued. "We adopted you because we knew that you were meant to be in our lives." She looked into her daughter's eyes. "We love you so much. It didn't seem fair to burden you with the truth."

Jazmine didn't say anything. She wasn't really sure what to say.

Sarah hung her head. "Honey, I know you may be angry with us, and that's understandable. We should've told you the truth at a young age, and I'm so sorry that we didn't. For you to have to tell us that you've struggled with feeling like a part of you is missing is heartbreaking and wrong on so many levels."

She grabbed Jazmine and pulled her into a hug before leaning back and pulling her face into her hands.

"All that I see when I look at you is a wonderful, courageous, kind young woman. I'm so proud of the amazing human being you're becoming. You've always been the highlight of our day. Of our lives. To know that we have played a role in making you feel like that light isn't sufficient is just…not okay."

"Mom, it's fi-"

"It's not, Jazmine. Sarah shook her head. "I shouldn't have kept it from you. We shouldn't have kept it from you. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry that you've had to suffer because of our poor decision-making."

"Well, that's too bad." Jazmine shrugged before bringing her mother into a big hug. "I forgive you anyway. You two have always been the best parents in the world. There's not much you could do to make me hate you." She shot her a teasing look. "Besides, who else is gonna buy me those pink high heels I've been eyeing for junior prom with Vince? Now, I have leverage to be the best looking sophomore in the building that day. Consider us even."

Her mother laughed. "Well, when you put it that way, I guess you do have a point, huh?"

Jazmine nodded before launching into her mother's arms, her eyes turning serious. "I'm sorry, mommy. For everything."

"Me too, sweetie." Sarah kissed the top of the teenager's head as they stayed in the embrace for a moment. "Me too."

"Do you think that they loved me?" Jazmine still had to act like she would have if she'd never met Dina and Julian. Even if she knew without a shadow of a doubt that they did love her. Enough to face whatever she'd seen in her vision head on.

"I've always told Tom that I thought they were in some sort of trouble." Sarah sighed. "And that them leaving you behind was the ultimate sacrifice to keep you safe. They definitely loved you, and I'm sure that they still do. They'd be very proud."

She turned her head to hide the tears forming in her eyes. "I guess I got lucky then."

Sarah's eyes widened as she hopped back, staring at her. "What? Why?"

"Because." Jazmine wiped a stray droplet from her eyes. "I have four people who love me, and one of those people is you." She scooted closer into her mother's chest. She'd almost died a few days ago damnit. She needed it. "I love you."

"I love you too."


"Say it again." Arielle murmured dreamily. They were sitting at the edge of the dock, their legs dangling over the water. Before Huey could even ask her what she was talking about, she clarified. "That you love me."

He stared at her before breaking into a slow grin, "I love you."

"I love you too, Huey." Jazmine said, glancing down. "I don't think I could've avoided it. Believe me. I tried."

He jerked back, gasping for air.

"What is it?" Arielle shot him a teasing look. "Is it that mallard duck you have a vendetta against?"

"Hey!" He crossed his arms and surveyed the lake. Sure enough, the duck was rushing over, heading straight towards his feet. "He's the one with the vendetta. I was just sitting here with the girl I love, minding my business." He snorted. "Even the ducks here discriminate against black people."

"You love me." Arielle gushed before turning over to gently bop his nose.

He did. He loved her even when she did that. He loved her. It even felt good to think about it.

Yes, he did love her. He'd thought that he'd been in love before, but he'd been mistaken. Terribly mistaken. It was so clear to him now….

Oh hell no.

He could take almost dying. He could live with losing his mind. He could take battle a few supernatural beings. He could even deal with having to watch Grandad be tied up by another weird woman he'd been dating, in nothing but his infamous purple speedo. But this? He couldn't deal with this.

His visions were off. There was no way. No way in hell that something like that could happen. Not now. Not ever.

It can. You'll see.

He was surprised by another vision, flashing by so quickly he'd almost missed it. It was of him, watching her orange hair from where he stood. Simple, innocent, insignificant.

You're lying. There's nothing insignificant about this. Admit it.

He shook his head and glanced back at Arielle, at the smile creeping across her face, at the way the sun's rays illuminated every feature she had. He brushed a braid back and slowly tilted his head until they were kissing. He felt himself relax into the kiss as he pulled her tighter, gripping onto her waist for dear life.

Jazmine had been right. It was best to forget all about it.

Then stop thinking about it so much.

He broke apart from the kiss. The words had been right there, right in his ear. This was part that he didn't like about his newfound gift. Spirits were always talking to him when they weren't supposed to be. They rarely bothered him when he was alone.

"The fuck?" He glanced around them. His eyes searching their surroundings. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

Arielle laughed and pointed at the duck speeding away from Huey's feet. "I think he likes you."

"Whatever." He muttered, lifting from the dock and pulling the girl with him. "Let's go. We can still go to that new vegan spot. It just opened."

"With the boy I love?" Arielle playfully skipped alongside him. "Absolutely."

Huey just chuckled and shook his head. He was so wrapped up in her that he didn't notice someone emerge from the water. Nor did he notice Bartholomew flit into view and shake the mystery man's hand. But all was well that ended well. He'd know soon. He'd find out the truth. And so would she.

They always did.


"I hate school!" Jazmine grumbled to nobody in particular. She glanced over at the paper that Dr. Elliot had given her a B on. She had deducted points on it due to her behavior on the trip. Why that woman hated her so much she'd never know. "Evil bitch."

She closed her locker and jumped back when someone on the other side of it was blinked in confusion. Cindy's blue eyes widened teasingly. "I knew it. You've snapped."

"Cindy, shut up!" Jazmine laughed before handing over her math homework, only to be surprised when the girl handed it back. "Uh oh. I'm sorry. Didn't realize this wasn't math related."

"Girl, you can't be this dense." Cindy rolled her eyes and fell into stride with Jazmine, who was headed off to her history class. "The whole school wants to know what you and Huey were doing that almost broke up him and Arielle. And they asses ain't got shit on my nosy ass. Spill!"

Jazmine rolled her own eyes in return. "It's not really as exciting as everybody keeps trying to make it out to be. " She grabbed her book out of the locker and closed it shut. "I got lost, and he happened to be there. I got lost after I wandered into the woods, followed his voice back to freedom, and we decided to let bygones be bygones. That's all that happened. Nothing else."

"You wandered into the woods without Vince there." Cindy looked upside her head. She still knew her just as well as she knew all of them. "And Huey just happened to be there…in his natural habitat…without his girlfriend…and with …you."

"I go outside!" Jazmine proclaimed a little too loudly, ignoring the sniggles of a few classmates passing them in the halls. She grabbed her friend's wrist and started to lower her voice. "If you just have to know, I found out I'd been adopted a few days before the trip, and that I was originally from Salem." She moved to the side, avoiding the avalanche of books coming from their classmate Regan's locker. "When I was out there, in those flowers, I felt closer to them. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. A little part of me was hoping that the answers were out there somewhere."

"I know Riley and I used to joke that you were probably adopted since you had orange hair and your momma had blonde hair. Especially since she, her momma, and her momma's momma were all blondes." She thoughtfully rubbed her chin and paused. "And come to think of it, your daddy's parents were black. And so were their parents. And your momma was real friendly with every black man in town-"

"Thank you, Cindy." She shot the girl a glare and kept moving. They were getting closer to her class. "I get it. You've always known about my adoption. I'm the only idiot who didn't get the memo."

"It's not like that!" Cindy's jaw dropped. "I'm sorry about the bombshell, okay? I guess I just thought if you and Huey were on good terms again, we'd be in a better place again, like how we used to be. I know he threatened you about staying away from us for some odd reason."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Jazmine shrugged.

"So shit's never going back to how it was?" Cindy pouted. She genuinely seemed saddened by the realization. "We're really never gonna move past that petty shit? How can you talk to him before you even talked to me? We were the real dynamic duo. From the beginning. Remember?"

Jazmine blinked and nodded, trying to swallow the lump in her throat.

"I do." She stopped near the door, ignoring the bell ringing, the emptiness of the hall. "It's just that it's not the same. Not for me." She made her voice as casual and gentle as she could manage. The last thing she'd wanted to do was hurt Cindy in all of this. "We almost died. We squashed the weird unspoken beef thing. It's just me being cordial, Cindy. That's it. You're still the one I'm closest with out of everybody. We even share math homework. Not even Vince get's that priviledge."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it." Cindy nearly tumbled in her efforts to rush away from Jazmine and towards her class. "Whatever though. I have class. Hit my line when you're ready to tell me the truth."

Jazmine opened her mouth to protest, but Cindy just shook her head.

"Just drop it."

She watched the girl walk away before turning her head, walking into history class. For the first time ever, she was doubting if everything that had transpired in the last two years was as helpful as she'd believed. Cindy had no idea how much she wished that she could snap her fingers and bring things back to how it was. To see how her life would be without this stupid fucked up war weighing her down.

Nothing was quite the same without them. Nothing ever would be again.


"Caesar, for the last time..." Huey rolled his eyes. "I already told you what happened." He looked around the gymnasium, careful to keep his voice down and his eyes on high alert. They were in PE and dodgeballs were flying left and right nearby. "How about you? Didn't you have a date with Danielle? The girl of your dreams?"

"The girl of my dreams was only using me to make the guy she actually wanted jealous." Caesar tried to keep his voice calm, but the hurt still poured out of his voice. He swung his left shoulder back just in time, narrowly escaping that ball that barreled past them and went crashing against the wall.

"I'm sorry man, maybe.." Huey blinked and then rolled out of the way when a dodgeball flew right into Caesar's face. Caesar took it well. He did a small flip and bowed towards the small crowd of girls at the top of the bleachers, who had stopped gossiping long enough to gasp in surprise when he'd been hit in the face. "It's okay, ladies. I'm alright!"

The boys both glanced up and looked over at the assailant, Vince Steadman. Jazmine's boyfriend. Junior class president. Everybody's favorite person. The young man who was known for being kind, humble, and sweet. The boy who had been so shy when they were in middle school, he'd made Jazmine seem downright forceful by association.

People had always joked that he would probably kill for Jazmine if he could now that they had finally started dating. Except now, nobody was taking that joke lightly. Not even Huey.

The coach smirked in the boys' direction and then glanced at Vince before he patted his shoulders. "Alright, class!" Coach Williams stood in front of the murmuring students, who glanced between Huey and Vince, anticipating a fight. "We're gonna play a little friendly game of dodgeball." He placed several balls in the center of the floor. "Obviously Caesar is out."

"How can he be out when we haven't started playing yet?" Huey stood right in front of Vince and returned his glare head on. He wasn't scared of him. One wrong move and he'd happily ruin his chances to go to the NFL. Permanently.

"He's out." Coach Williams said sharply. He crossed the boy's name out on the board. "No special treatment."

"Unless your name is Vince." Huey said in a low tone, causing the class to erupt into laughter. Vince's eyes narrowed even more.

You're gonna regret that. He's not playing around.

If what the spirit was saying was true, he couldn't exactly be mad. If he'd been on the receiving end of this scenario, he probably would have fucked Vince up on the spot.

He still planned on winning. He didn't know if it was the way that the coach seemed to be rooting for Vince, the lingering confusion from the past few days, the residual anger from everybody's gossip causing a confrontation using dodgeballs, or just the underlying tension with Jazmine lately. What he did know was that he wasn't going to let this boy punk him over some rumors going around school. He'd saved his girlfriend twice! Vince should have been thanking him.

After you almost got her killed, several times.

Huey snorted in response to the spirit, but nobody else knew that. The calls burst into another fit of laughter, making Vince even angrier. Maybe he'd calm down after blowing off some steam in a few minutes.

He won't.

"Seven boys on each team." The coach interrupted. He gazed at each group standing near Huey and Vince, who were both folding their arms in front of each other, sizing the other one up. He counted until he said the number seven twice. "Looks good to me."

Huey nodded towards his team, who crouched into position. Vince nodded toward his team, and they did the same. The coach blew the whistle. And both boys grabbed a ball and lunged backward, using the maneuver to propel the dodgeballs toward their opponents as fast as they could.

Two balls slammed into his strongest players. He hadn't even known that Vince could move that fast. He hadn't known that anyone could move that fast. He glanced up just in time to see Vince completing a twirl that had allowed him to catapult two balls across the floor – in opposite directions. Two boys groaned, wincing after they'd been hit in the leg. They doubled over and gripped their thighs, causing another boy named Aaron to fall over them right when another ball whacked the base of his tennis shoe.

"Aaron! Fred! Edward!" Coach Williams wasn't even hiding his excitement at this point. "You're out!"

Vince and his squad were still moving. Huey flipped over and dodged four balls then ran to grab three of his own. He held two in each hand and one in the crook of his left arm. He launched all of them forward at once, purposely aiming one ball slightly past Vince's head with a warning shot. The other two boys directly behind him collapsed on the ground, out cold.

The students gasped.

"Um." Coach Williams breathed a sigh of relief when they came to shortly after. "Cole! Julian! You're out!"

The balls slammed across the court. Huey caught a ball from Darren, who was on Vince's team. So, he was out. Vince ended up slamming the ball back towards Huey's team. It flew into Barry's side after he'd run directly in front of Huey to grab a ball, but not before Barry's ball hit Winston and Desmond on the other side. All of them were out. That left two players on each team before Huey and Vince would be left to battle each other.

The two remaining players glanced at one another and shrugged. They barely even hit each other with the ball they each had thrown, but they were out, nonetheless. The ball clattered loudly to the floor as Coach Williams crossed out their names on the whiteboard. It was time for the real battle.

A ball zipped past Huey's head and knocked down a retired Jersey of famous basketball player, Ryan Presley. It had been bolted to the wall, and Vince Steadman had knocked it down like it was nothing. "Heard you and Jazmine patched things up on the trip." Vince's voice was casual. He shot him a smile that was anything but innocent. "I sure would hate to find out you were taking advantage of her, Freeman."

He launched some extra dodgeballs his way. They were moving so fast that Huey was struggling to dodge them.

Huey ran up and threw the balls that had wandered over to his side. "Vince, c'mon. It's me. I've never seen her like that, and you know it." He threw the balls furiously, harder and harder as he said the words. One of the balls hit the basketball hoop on Vince's side and it fell onto the floor. Clattering like it didn't weigh over 200 pounds. "We just agreed to put the beef to rest."

"She's always tried to put it to rest!" Vince defended. The balls were somehow whipping past him faster. And Huey matched his intensity with each ball he threw back. Getting angrier and angrier that he was being made a spectacle of in his own class. "You're the one who's been avoiding her! Yelling at her! Hurting her!" He managed to throw another ball. This one dangerously close to Huey's arm. Vince's eyes were full of an unspoken promise. "Stay away from her, Freeman. She's been thriving since you stopped yanking her down." Another ball hurtled closer, not close enough to hit him, but close enough so that Huey knew that he could. "She's going through enough right now. She doesn't need you swooping in and making things worst."

Huey shot the balls back without even thinking about it. "I've never been the reason why she's hurting, and we both know it." He sent another one launching right for his face, enjoying the slight flinch apparent in Vince's arrogant ass face. "Your insecurities don't have shit to do with me." He sent another one launching past him. "Face it. Jazmine's not the problem. You are!"

The ball came crashing into Huey's chest. The contact was so jarring that Huey brought his hands to his throat, wheezing loudly as Caesar came rushing over to his side. Everybody stared at them. The perfect boyfriend, Vince Steadman, defending his girlfriend's honor against the toughest boy in school, Huey Freeman. He could hear the girls sighing in awe above him.

"Trust me, I'm not the problem here." Vince walked up to him. All the pretense of a friendly game of a dodgeball was long gone. "I know you won't leave her alone unless she tells you to." He offered his hand and flashed a bright, insincere smile as everyone else nearby strained to listen. "All that I'm saying?" He glanced around and spoke lowly, a growl in his voice that only Huey and Caesar could hear. "Is you'd better make sure she's not miserable because of you ever again."

Vince yanked him up and patted Huey's shoulders, continuing before giving him a onceover. "You don't fool me, Freeman." He walked around him, pulling something out of his fro and then allowing it to clatter to the ground. It was his afro pick. "You act like you're so different than the rest of us, but we all know it's only a matter of time before you screw this up." He smiled. "Jazmine likes to see the good in people." He frowned and then stepped forward, ever so slightly balling up his fist. "I like to see the truth."

When Huey didn't say anything, Vince laughed and shoved him back. It wasn't entirely playful, but it wasn't entirely rough either. "Don't make me fuck you up, nigga."

Huey let out a dangerous hiss and Caesar came rushing by his side before he could act, placing himself in between them. "Look, man. Whatever it is, I'm sure it's not that serious. Huey and Jazmine haven't spoken in ages. He has a girl, and you're dating Jazmine. They squashed it. There's no bad blood. That's it. Let's just calm down. Alright?"

Vince just shook his head and laughed again. The chuckle was dark. A warning of what was to come. "It's up to you." He glanced over at Huey and then over to Caesar. "Just thought the nigga should know my girl isn't the one to play with."

He glanced around the gym and shot the boys in it a look. "If Jazmine hears one word about what happened, I'll fuck everybody in this bitch up!"

He walked to the other side of the court and stopped by Coach Williams chair. The coach slid his hand up near his, doing some elaborate handshake. "Alright, Vince. Good game."

Vince kept walking, his eyes on Huey until he walked out of the double doors.

Once they slammed shut, the boys started laughing, talking amongst themselves, while Huey sat, dumbfounded.

"You told me earlier that what happened on that trip was nothing." Caesar shook his head, staring at his friend who was still trying to catch his breath. "You sure about that?"


"Honey!" Jazmine's dad called her from downstairs. "Our neighbor is here."

Unbelievable.

Jazmine flew down the stairs and swung the door open. "I thought I told you it was best if we don't-"

Riley was staring at her, a smirk on his face. Jazmine could only look up in shock. He'd been the baby out of all of them two years ago, but now he was towering over her. And he sounded even more like Huey than she'd remembered. "Now that you and Huey done worked whatever that shit was, I'm here for some of those strawberry brownies. Mane those thangs used to be bussin'! I can't wait to eat one of them good ass thangs again."

"Riley-"

"Aye! Don't start with me, Mariah!" He walked over to her fridge like it was something he did every day. "I know yo ass still knows how to make em! Shit, I'll even help ya."

"What are you-" She slammed the stainless-steel doors shut before he could take the eggs out. "Riley, seriously! Can you just hold on a sec?"

"You…" He hung his head and then glanced over at her. He was trying to play it off as indifference, but Riley could never fool her. "You hate me or something?"

They were really putting her through the ringer today.

"Riley." She softened her voice and placed her hand on his shoulder. "I could never hate you. Okay? It's just that now isn't the time."

"Vince doesn't want you around us or sum?" Riley rose an eyebrow and puffed his chest out. "Because I don't care what Huey says. You say the word. Me and that nigga'll go fuck em up behind you! No questions asked. You don't have to-"

"It's not Vince, Riley. It's me." Jazmine started to tell him what she'd theoretically told Huey two years ago. "When Huey and I argued two years ago-"

"Riley! Didn't I tell you not to bother her?" Huey was in the kitchen, his lips molded into a tight frown. He shook his head slightly, obviously not wanting her to say anything like that to his brother. Jazmine closed her mouth. "You can't just come rushing into someone's house based on some dumbass school rumors."

"Wasn't stupid from what I heard earlier." Riley looked between them before turning on his heel and walking towards the front door. "Vince didn't think so either. See, me personally, I just wanted those good ass brownies. A nigga ain't had em in two and a half years. "

"What are you talking about?" Jazmine's eyes narrowed before looking over at Huey. "What is he talking about?"

"Gossip." Huey shrugged, cutting him off and practically shoving Riley out the door. He glanced back toward Jazmine, trying to reassure her. "Sorry about him. He's got one more year until high school. You remember how it is."

He was acting just how she'd asked him to. Now that he was, she realized that she missed him way more than she'd thought. Even if they'd only been arguing most of the time.

"Yeah, so..." He broke her out of her trance. She hadn't realized she had been staring at him. "See you around I guess."

She nodded. "Yeah, su-"

That whooshing sound never got easier to deal with. She tried to shield them both as they whirled around, noticing that Tom was frozen, and he wasn't the only one. Out of her peripheral, she could see that Riley was frozen. Only she and Huey remained unaffected. But oddly enough, her powers weren't working.

"It's not my fault I didn't freeze so don't start." Huey glanced around, getting into stance as Jazmine's eyes glanced into his, searching for clues about him. "I told you this would happen."

"You did, didn't you?" Bartholomew chuckled at Huey and Jazmine. "Well, well, well. Looks like you two are starting to develop a routine. How cute. Such good friends."

Jazmine flicked her hand towards him and was surprised to discover that her powers didn't work against him. "Oh, Jazmine." He held up a shiny, double sided coin and flipped it. "Pick a side." He laughed before moving closer.

"How did you get your hands on a leprechaun's coin?" Her eyes widened in surprise when she tried twitching her nose to push him out of the house. Bartholomew didn't budge. "It's supposed to be impossible to get one of those."

"I would rather not bore you with the details." Bartholomew told her. "Rather cumbersome." He flickered out of view and then flitted to the next side of the room. "But, there is someone I need to introduce you to first."

A boy about their age emerged out of nowhere. His eyes were grey, his skin chocolate, and his muscles were bulging. Plus, he was incredibly tall with long dreads, and Jazmine had a thing for guys with a lot of hair. She didn't know what had come over her. He was….well, hot. He wore a leather vest, leather pants, and combat boots. The last time she'd seen Dominic he had kissed her square on the lips. It had been her first real kiss at fourteen. And he'd tricked her. When she'd gone looking for him, hellbent on vanquishing him, she'd been given strict instructions to let him go. She'd always wondered what would happen if she saw him again.

She couldn't focus. Why the hell couldn't she focus? She tried to think of her gorgeous, perfect, absolute hunk of a boyfriend, but all that she could focus on was him.

It was weird. She knew that she should be kicking his ass right now, but all of her senses were left vulnerable. Which meant she and Huey were left vulnerable. Then again, being vulnerable to someone so cute wasn't so bad.

She blinked, realizing that Huey was still there. She tried to focus on him, but she couldn't take her eyes off of him, and worst, the more she ignored the feelings the worst that they became.


"Ahem." Huey stared at the demon and Jazmine, trying to get their attention. "Care to introduce yourself to the class, Dominic?"

"Ah, the mortal medium is jealous?" Dominic smiled, sending a knowing look Bartholomew's way. "She can't help it. On top of me being undeniably sexy, she's enchanted by that coin he's holding. Any woman near it is enamored with my presence." Bartholomew lifted it for good measure, silently prodding the demon to continue. "I know that luck isn't on you two's side right now, so I'm here to help. Let you guys see how it feels to be as sexy as me for a change."

"Nobody wants your charity." Huey snapped, surprised at how protective he still felt over her. "I don't want anything from you."

"I can put this all behind her." Dominic nodded, swirling around Huey, nearly floating. His voice was so charming that if Huey didn't pay close attention he would swear he was genuine. "Help her to move forward. What do you say?"

Huey knew better than to lose his healthy sense of fear. As unassuming as Dominic seemed, he was leaps and bounds more powerful than those witches had been. He could feel it. "What do you want?"

Dominic checked Jazmine out, staring at the girl's lips and then casually letting his eyes drift over the rest of her.

"Nigga, you'd better not ever look at her like that again!" Huey could feel that feeling again. That same feeling he'd had earlier throwing dodgeballs against Vince. It was starting to click. How he'd been feeling that day. Them being confronted with what had happened. All the crazy things that had happened. They weren't accidents. They'd been intentional. "What the hell? What did you do to us?"

"Repression spell. It'll draw out a two, maybe three emotions. Then, you'll tell the truth." Dominic walked over and chuckled, pointing at the door. "We'll see ourselves out. Bartholomew and I are busy. You seem to be struggling with it the most so far, and it hasn't even gotten started yet." He smiled when a bucket of popcorn appeared into his hands. "We plan on enjoying the show. This will be fun. For us anyway."

"Jazmine." Huey glanced at her. "Freeze him, blast him, do something!"

"But, he's sexy!" She blurted, a blush coming across her cheeks when she realized what she'd said. Huey rolled his eyes and buried his face into his hands when she tried again. "I want him to kiss me."

"That can be arranged." Dominic hopped up, a little too eagerly for Huey's taste. "Let's give the Golden Child what she wants, eh?"

Huey rushed towards Dominic, his fist close to making impact with his eye, when suddenly, Huey was dragged away from Dominic and Jazmine. His hands roughly slid along the hardwood floor along with the rest of his body while he struggled, trying to grip onto something. Once he slid into the Dubois' kitchen, his head hit the bottom of the white kitchen island. He popped up just in time to see Dominic gingerly touch Jazmine's chin, his voice soft. "I'll see you soon, beautiful. Don't worry."

He planted a gentle kiss on Jazmine's cheek then pointed at Huey and smirked before combusting into a solid flame. "It's been a pleasure. Peace."

"Where'd they go?" Jazmine glanced around, confused after snapping out of it. "We've got to go after them."

He didn't have the heart to tell her that she had unleashed two years of repressed lust onto a dread headed demon.

"Clearly, we've got bigger problems." Huey grabbed her arm, moving her up the stairs up to her room before the rest of the house unfroze. He closed the door behind them and locked it. "This clearly isn't going away. We might as well make the best of it."

She didn't argue with him. She didn't want to, and it clearly wasn't going to work. Not anymore.

"Fine." She grabbed some pens and paper from her desk and pulled a few small bags out of her drawer. "Clearly, I was under some sort of mind control under Dominic. Did he say anything?"

"He said that he was the demon of repression." He studied her face as she suddenly jerked back and started to pace. She walked into her closet and pulled out a thick booklet and flipped through the pages. "Any idea what that entails?"

"Another game to keep us from the real master plan." Jazmine rolled her eyes upwards. "Until we work on our underlying emotions, our powers will be wonky. So like, let's say you're possessive over Arielle out of fear she'd leave you, that fear would become more pronounced. No offense."

"I just watched you lust over a grey eyed demon." He shot her a look before letting out a low chuckle when she blushed, embarrassed. "None taken. My name's not Vince, so it's not my problem." He smirked despite himself. It was what her overstepping ass boyfriend deserved. "Any way to break the spell?"

"I don't see anything in here about a repression demon." She groaned. "This is bad Huey, really bad. He can trigger all sorts of things. He's probably been slowly building them up all day. Do you know how hellish the next few days are going to be at school? Especially with all of the rumors going around about us." She glared at him. "Thanks for the heads up by the way."

"You'd have to be living under a rock to not know that we've been the topic of everybody's conversation. Nobody told you to date the most popular boy in school knowing that you have powers." He rolled his eyes. "And let's not forget that you weren't exactly keen on us talking up until a few minutes ago."

"Why don't you like Vince?" Jazmine blurted. She knew that it wasn't right for her to be suspicious of Huey. But even now, something about him not freezing really bothered her. No matter how much something in her was willing her to trust him. Willing her to let him in.

"What don't you like about Arielle?" Huey raised a brow of his own and smirked when she didn't answer. "Okay then."

"Fair enough." She grumbled before grabbing the green notebook he always saw her scribbling in. She added in a few more items to the agenda. Oddly enough, she didn't seem to be looking at it. Probably one of the things that came with her having to protect the Innocents.

"I've seen you do stuff in my visions, by the way." He shifted uncomfortably. "It was impressive. You're pretty tough. You took on five demons by yourself, you defended some guy in spiritual court who sold his soul for a hot dog, and even though I still don't agree with you being punished for holding white witches accountable after they have continued to oppress our ancestors in the afterlife…." He trailed off, shaking his head in disgust before continuing. "I think you're pretty badass yourself." His eyes hardened. " What we really need to do is work on figuring out a way to get rid of Thaddeus, once and for all. We get rid of him…we get rid of Bartholomew."

"You had another vision?" Jazmine glanced at him, watching him flop down on the floor and stare at the ceiling. She giggled at how brooding he looked. He was still so grumpy. "It's weird. Mine don't work anymore. How are you having so many? And what do mean by we? We both know that I'll have to do all of the vanquisihing here."

"I don't know." Huey shrugged. "I had issues controlling mine, and I meditated. I've been doing it for years though, since I was a kid, and I'm stronger at it than most regular people. I've been seeing ghosts or weird figments of my imagination all my life." He rolled his eyes upwards. "This is just another step in the rung for me. I guess because I'm so open to it. It just comes naturally to me. And I'll ignore that last part for now. You'll see."

The conversation Jazmine had with Julian jumped back into her mind. "Would you show me how to mediate?"

"Hell yeah." Huey nodded. "More people need to get into it. Really helps to keep you focused." He opened his eyes to glance at her. "Speaking of that." Her face formed a grimace before he could even finish. He didn't acknowledge it. "We need to go over your defensive tactics too. You were struggling in that last battle, and you didn't really stand much of a chance in the war either. Didn't anyone teach you some in the past two years?"

"Well, you remember Leilani right?" Jazmine asked him.

"Yeah." He nodded his head and closed his eyes again, visibly irritated by the mention of her name. "She's the Hazel eyed ghost girl who left us for dead over those dumbass rules. Plus, she used one of her stupid tricks on me, trying to make me fall for her in middle school when she decided to resurrect herself..."

"I was there, remember? Trust me, she didn't have to try that hard. Didn't you try to kiss her?" Jazmine chuckled at Huey when he crossed his arms and stared in the other direction. "Anyways, her and her mom, Katherine were training me. Leilani had wanted to delve more into defense, but at the time, I was busy fighting with you. Plus, Katherine thought it would be more useful to focus on spellwork, saying it would be more helpful to have that in my back pocket in a supernatural battle. She made training fun. Leilani made it hellish."

"First of all, your little guardian bewitched me! I had an innocent crush on her, and she made herself a male magnet. I saw some of that lady's powers in my vision. She ain't innocent!" Huey barked back, ignoring Jazmine breaking into a fit of laughter on her bed. "Secondly, This is a hellish environment. Literally." Huey shot her a look. "She was probably looking out for you. That little nice grandma shit would've gotten you killed." He glanced back at the ceiling. "You should be thanking her. You probably hated Leilani then, but I bet you're grateful you learned what little you did now."

"I did hate her then." Jazmine rolled her eyes. "She was mean as hell. Even meaner than you. That's probably why you were crushing on her so hard back then."

He sat up and looked at her. "Shut up."

They burst into another fit of laughter.

"What are we going to do if the emotions get…romantic?" Jazmine winced. "I just got a flash of Dominic, and if Vince were to catch me oogling him, that would make things pretty awkward. Maybe we should stick together? Or play sick until this passes."

"I have a feeling that it doesn't work like that." Huey shook his head. "You can't really work through repressed feelings sitting in your room. Not without going crazy. Until we can pinpoint what we're feeling, we'll just have to play it by ear and hope that it doesn't go to the extreme. We can control ourselves."

Jazmine groaned, plopping a pillow onto her face.

"They're just emotions." He snorted. "They can't kill you."

Easy for him to say. He barely had any.

"Well, let's put it this way." Jazmine closed the book and glanced at him; her eyes distant. "I've seen firsthand what emotions can do. And if you're going to do this, if you're going to go on this ride with me, you have to understand this now. They absolutely can. They control about 95% of the spiritual world. These beings feed off them. They need the emotions of humans going from one extreme to the next to strengthen them. That's why…"

She didn't have to say that her own feelings about their middle school friend group led her to separate herself from all of them so that they could be safe. And neither did he. Instead, they glanced up at the ceiling together. Her, in her bed, him, on her floor, the silence flooding into the room.

Jazmine had forgotten how good it felt to be so in sync with someone that words weren't needed. She'd always felt peaceful around him before, and sitting here with him now, no spirits, no demons, no suspicious boyfriend, no war, she felt…

Good.

And with whatever was coming, she planned on holding onto that feeling for as long as she could.