Deeper Than Blood - Abigail Livinghouse (leveled readers .TXT) 📗

Summary

In your world, your soft, cushy world, you are a human. You do not believe any legends, any stories. Well believe it. Because they’re real. And they are happening. Jordan Fairchild lives in California, where it’s sunny, hot, and beautiful. She lives with her adopted family in a rich suburb. She is very charming and likeable but there is more to her than meets the eye. Jordan has magic, she has charm, but her world is turned upside down when two strange teenagers move into town who are abnormal, just like Jordan. She and the two become very close, yet at the same time they drive her up a wall. They are careless and cocky. Jordan feels like she is a babysitter. The two are dangerous, to the world, to everyone, they are in Jordan’s hands. They are her responsibility. 

       

His laugh, he had such an amazing laugh. It was so easy, not so much forced as many. It was beautiful, much like his eyes. They were such a warm brown, with beautiful golden specks. His gaze embraced you, it pulled you right in. His eyes had ridiculous effects on people. He could look at a girl and she would swoon at the sight of him. When he turned the full-on effect of his gaze on me, I myself felt dizzy. I could get lost forever in those eyes. Most people, especially guys, fell all over my looks, my beauty. I was very beautiful. I would not deny that. He was beautiful as well, but he was not normal, oh, I could tell that for a fact. However, I am not normal either. I felt like I had no control. Which was ridiculous. I held the control, for he did not. He had none. But, let me start from the beginning.

Chapter 1

I laughed as Brian fell over himself trying to obey Kylie’s wishes. She had asked him to get her some food, and a drink from the table of snacks we had set out. The Halloween party my parents had thrown was a huge success, mostly because we lived in one of the richest neighborhoods in town. Everyone who’s anyone lived here, and everyone who didn’t envied those who did. Someone, I suspect Jamie, had spilled punch on the floor, directly in the path of Brian. He slipped, naturally, and landed on his back, mini hot dogs and dip smearing on his face and in his hair, not to mention the green punch staining his white shirt. Who the hell where’s a white shirt to a Halloween party anyway? Brian was definitely a weird guy. It was a costume party, and he was the only one to show up wearing a button down shirt and slacks. Weird. But I wasn’t going to be the one to kick him out. Let Sharon handle that. Sharon was our maid. We had given her the night off, since she’d need a whole week, maybe more, to clean up the mess of this party.

 

“Whoops, looks like you’re done for the night.” Kylie said, twirling her fairy wand through the air. “Way to go, geek.” She turned around and laughed with Lisa and all the other cheerleaders, including myself, about Brian’s screw up.

 

Kylie liked to play games with people like Brian, nerds. I didn’t usually take advantage of people like that, but to Kylie, it was all a game. Brian’s face turned bright red as he stared up at Kylie through his glasses.

 

“Go to hell, bitch.” He sneered, getting to his feet and grabbing some napkins. He attempted to wipe off some of the party favors on his clothes, only making it worse.

 

“What did you say to me?” Kylie said, stepping away from us.

 

Some of us made ooh sounds, because no one calls Kylie a bitch, and when someone does, they pay. Brian looked at her, and you could literally see the confidence and sudden self-esteem boost drain from him like the color on his face. He was now a pasty white.

 

“Nothing.” He mumbled, pushing past Kylie and leaving through the front door. Kylie laughed.

 

“I’ll deal with him later. Where’s Keith? I haven’t seen him.” She looked around, distracted, and moved away from us with a dopy smile, seeming to find her captain of the football team boyfriend.

 

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Popular, high school snobs, people you instantly hate just by looking at them. But no, we’re not all like that. Just a few of us, like Kylie and Lisa. Me and Miranda are nothing like that. We are actually very nice. Miranda shook her head at Lisa as she moved in to flirt with Kylie’s boyfriend.

 

“They are so stupid. They shouldn’t have done that to Brian. I feel bad for him.”

 

I shrugged, smiling halfheartedly. “What can I say? Do you want to”, I leaned in closer, whispering. “help him out?”

 

Miranda cocked a pale blonde eyebrow. “I don’t know. Do you think we’ll get caught?”

 

I put my hands on my hips, tilting my head to the side so that my wavy dark brown hair fell over my shoulder. “Really? We’ve never been caught before.”

 

Miranda laughed. “Oh yeah, what about all those times when we’ve had to save our sorry asses with more than what’s allowed? We could get suspended for it, you know.”

 

I rolled my eyes. “Relax. We’re not gonna get caught. Besides, it’s not like they can monitor everything we do. When there’s trouble, they watch. And there’s no trouble. Really, there isn’t a risk.”

 

Miranda sighed, but I could see that she was a second away from caving. Sure enough, she huffed and nodded. “Fine. Let’s help him.”

 

I grinned. “Great.”

 

I looked over both shoulders and grabbed Miranda’s arm. We ducked into the garage, where no one was, and closed the door behind us. Our garage held a selection of cars. My dad’s a huge race car fanatic, so since he can’t drive actual race cars on the road, he gets the next−and fastest−best thing. I saw my one car out of the assortment, we had about twelve cars packed in our garage. Mine was a cherry red Ferrari. God, I loved that car. I would get my license in one month, and as soon as I do, I’m gonna finally be able to drive that dream. I broke out of my fantasy and turned to Miranda, who was looking around anxiously. I waved a hand.

 

“Don’t worry, no one will come in here. It’s off-limits. Now, what spell do you want to use?”

 

She shrugged, her eyes still wandering. “Whichever. I don’t care, as long as we can help the guy. Let’s at least clean his clothes.”

 

I nodded. “Agreed. Okay.”

 

I shut my eyes, so did Miranda, and we joined hands. We began to chant. “Do our bidding, we command the. Help this misfortunate boy, help him. Clean his clothes with witch the wicked has soiled, assist him! Help him!”

 

The wind shrieked outside, rustling the trees. The lights momentarily flickered. The feel of magic in the air was like static, nearly tangible. I felt Miranda squeeze my hand gently. I mouthed, “it’s okay.”

 

A moment later, everything was still. I sighed and dropped my hands. “There. He’s all helped.”

 

Miranda nodded. “Good. God, I hate that Kylie. Why do we even hang out with her?”

 

I shrugged as we headed back inside. “Who knows? If you want to sit somewhere different on Monday, it’s cool with me.”

 

Miranda hesitated. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

 

“Let’s just have fun, don’t worry about Kylie. Who cares.”

 

She nodded. “Yeah. You’re right.”

 

I winked. “I always am.”

 

Miranda rolled her eyes as she headed into the huge living room, where music was booming loudly and strobe lights of all colors were flashing. I sighed. The rush of magic was wonderful, my blood was still tingling. I was serious when I said I wasn’t normal. I’m a witch.

Chapter 2

“Witch” was just one word to describe what we are. We prefer sorceress. And when I say “we” I mean me and Miranda. No, Kylie is not a sorceress, neither is Lisa, or Jamie. And I thank God for that. I could not imagine the mayhem Kylie would create if she was one of us. I looked at the dance floor, also known as my living room. We pushed all of the furniture out of the way so that there would be tons of room to dance. There were at least two hundred people at the party, and there was still room for more. The doorbell suddenly rang. I almost laughed.

 

Miranda appeared at my side. “I thought everyone was here already?”

 

I shrugged. “That’s what I was just thinking. The more the merrier.”

 

I opened the door and almost fell over. There were two people standing there, a girl and a guy, both absolutely gorgeous. The girl was dressed in a red and black lace vampiress costume with combat boots. The boy wore a gothic outfit of ripped black jeans, a shredded shirt with fishnets for sleeves, and his hair was streaked with red. They were both about my age. The thing that nearly knocked me off my feet, was the energy they radiated, some people called them auras, was very off. It was as if someone had taken a watercolor painting and poured a bucket of gray over it. Everything was mashed together and blurry. It was annoying to look at.

 

I turned to Miranda, who was doing a poor job at hiding her alarm. I turned back to the guests. They both smiled.

 

“Hi”, the girl spoke first. She was model beautiful, with perfect skin, long brown hair, and dark blue eyes. She seemed nice though. “We heard that this is where the party’s at and”, she peeked over my shoulder, “Judging by the looks of it our source is correct. May we come in?”

 

I nodded silently and gestured with my arm. “Sure. There’s food and drinks in the kitchen, game room’s downstairs, pool’s outback, and the dance floor is right through there.” I pointed.

 

I spoke robotically, my voice flat. To most people, I probably sounded rude. The girl just smiled.

 

“Thanks.” She came inside, the guy following behind her.

 

The guy was totally adorable. His hair was black, and he was very in-shape. But it was his eyes that were really stunning. They were a lovely light brown, with flecks of gold. But they caught your attention immediately and reeled you in. I blinked a