Marked for Them (Witches of Rose Lake, Book 1)

Chapter One (Marked for Them)

Dimitri

Ten years ago

Rose Lake Coven

"Look what I found."

I groaned as Wade Coleman, one of my four best friends, held up the Ouija board my mom had left out. Lifting my head from my homework, I raised a brow at Wade, who laid the game on the table and opened the box. His black hair hung in his eyes.

Correction. An Ouija board wasn't a game. At least, not to me.

Ugh. I'd forgotten Mom had left that thing out. She was a hedge witch and able to communicate with the spirits. Humans called her a medium. It wasn't far from the truth. Humans just didn't know about her natural witchy abilities. The latter is how the magical Council preferred it. The less humans knew about how powerful witches were, the better for everyone.

"That's not a toy." Zane Carter, sole heir to the wolf Alpha of the local Pack, scowled from the La-Z-Boy with a game controller in his hand. I agreed with him.

Zane and I were the only two paras—short for paranormal beings—in our small group of friends. We were also the only two out of the five that couldn't get drunk. Well, not as quickly as the humans anyway. Our metabolism was too fast and burned off most of the alcohol before it could linger in the system.

Wyatt, Wade's twin brother, stumbled to a stand, damn near spilling his beer as he walked sideways to the table where his twin was setting up the board. The fifth member of our friend circle, Trevor Reed, joined them.

I glanced at Zane, and he shrugged. With a heavy sigh, I rattled off the rules. "No asking anything to come visit. Period. Only ask questions that can be answered through the board. Do not ask anything to visit." I repeated the latter because they weren't listening, or so I thought.

Wyatt waved a hand. "We know. Come join us."

"Not a chance. I may only be a green witch, but I still have magic in my blood. So I'm not touching that thing." I closed my AP English book and moved to sit next to Zane. He handed me the secondary controller. Let the humans have their fun. They were smart guys and knew the rules of magic because I reminded them almost daily.

"What are the chances of something coming through there?" Zane asked, a hint of worry in his tone.

"As long as they don't invite anything over, they should be fine."

I hoped. The Ouija board frightened me. The main reason being that I'd seen my mother bring a demon through the thing once. I was five, and she'd been calling a client's dead spouse over. Little did she know that the husband was possessed at the time of death and, apparently, the demon still had hold of the soul in the afterlife.

I shuddered. Zane raised a brow at me. I waved him off and started the video game.

The trio at the table laughed and talked loudly at each other. I glanced over periodically and was tempted to get up and take the board away.

Zane nudged me with his elbow. "Relax, you're going to get your anxiety up again."

I nodded. Zane was right. I might be worrying over nothing. The last thing I needed was a panic attack. But I wished they would put the damn board up.

After a few moments, I put the controller down and walked to the table, set on ending the craziness of talking to spirits. I hated it when Mom did it, so I made sure I wasn't home when she entertained clients.

When I reached the table, the lights flickered and then shut off. The French doors to the backyard blew open, slamming into the walls and shattering the glass. In the center of the room, a dark, smoky orb hovered.