Free Magical Tendencies by Selena Hunter Page B

sparkled, glowed, shined. He was something… other. I distinctly knew that but I never, never felt unsafe around him for a moment. What was the deal with my running away from him. What was I running away from?
    "Solomon Ryker." I spoke his name and tasted it on my lips. His name was a spell, a continuous spell that held my emotions in constant turmoil. What was he doing to me?
    Tisha looked up from her tea and nodded. "Yes, this time is different because you have met the warlock first—Von Edwards. Solomon Ryker had always met you first and you would run." She seemed so sure of it but it didn't sound accurate.
    Tilting my head slightly but not letting my eyes leave my cup of tea, I felt like my mind was anchored in the back of my eyes. Where was all of this going?
    "No, I did not meet the warlock first." My mind refused to call him my husband. Something Solomon said about there not being a king struck me.
    "Celeste!" Tisha sounded flabbergasted. "What do you mean?!"
    Slowly my eyes turned to rest on Tisha. Without a blink I said "I met Solomon Ryker on Thursday night. He saved me from an attack—a demon from what he said to Jack." My voice trailed off into the night.
    Tisha's eyes were like two huge round buttons—not blinking, not sharing any emotion except for outright shock. She shook her head as her hair bounced from shoulder to shoulder. "Are you telling me that you met a man and you didn't TELL me about it?!"
    I don't know why, but that made me laugh. I laughed so loudly that my neighbors were probably getting ready to bang on the wall to call quits to my fun. What in the world was she talking about? "I don't tell you about every little thing I do, Tisha." I snickered one more time just for good measure.
    Tisha looked a bit taken aback. "You always did in the past." She looked at her shoes, lacing her eyebrows together in deep concentration.
    Half closing one eye as if she were in a lopsided, frozen wink, she asked, "Did you sleep with Solomon?"
    "What?! Are you kidding me?! I just met the guy! Geesh, Tish!"
    Nodding, Tisha set her tea on the coffee table, taking my cup and doing the same thing as well.
    "So you met the vampire before the warlock and yet we are still here, together, on your couch, speaking of the future as if you still don't know who you truly are." She looked me up and down, "Interesting."
    I really hated when Tisha began acting like Spock because it really creeped me out. She could get so analytical and self-righteous that I wanted to shake her until her pretty little eyes rolled out. Of course I would never hurt her—she just got on my nerves.
    "Whatever." I was upset and I pushed off of the couch and stomped over to the kitchen. Bracing myself on the countertop, I felt like I needed something to keep my hands busy with so that I could be distracted even if it were for only a minute.
    Tisha was standing directly across from me with a new look on her face—she was puzzled. "I don't quite understand what is going on, Celeste. This is new."
    "Why are you speaking like an old lady, Tish? You really tick me off when you talk like that! Why can't you act like you usually do and speak like a normal twenty-four-year-old… woman?"
    Tisha immediately swung her hip out to the side and leaned on it with gusto. I couldn't help but snicker because she was doing it for my benefit.
    "Although I do enjoy the wardrobe this time around, I find that it is much harder to keep up with the lingo these days. All of the texting acronyms give me a headache and it's hard to act boy crazy over anything in tight jeans." Tisha actually seemed depressed.
    "H-O-T, HOT. You were good at it," I giggled. Sometimes I actually had to rein her in because she was a bit over the top sometimes. I shook my head—this could not be happening.
    "So what do I do, Tish? Or should I call you Mortisha?" What a strange name.
    "Tisha is fine until you realize who we both are. You always revert back to Mortisha when the memories flood." Tisha