Kennedy Reborn

Chapter 1: Growing old sucked. Finding balance in this new body proved difficult. Kennedy never expected the change from child to adult to be so… taxing. To have it imposed upon her in the beat of a bat wing— After ten days, she had still found no stability. The stately rooflines of the Beacon Hill mansions gave an impressive view of Boston Common. They made for an easy escape route if Kennedy needed to hightail it away. Just down the street sat the golden dome of the State House. Much higher, Kennedy would have loved to perch atop it like a cat but shunned the added security. Better to not mess with the state troopers. They rarely had a sense of humor. For observation, it was nearly as important not to be seen as it was to observe the target. Spring was on the way. In the city’s gardens, crocuses bloomed, pushing up from under what little snow remained from the Saint Patrick’s Day storm. Soon it would be time to celebrate Summer Solstice. Love would be in the air. Who cared, love had no use. Since that night, over a week ago, she’d lived on the streets, never venturing far from Frog Pond and the entrance to the Elven veil. The twins, her covenmates Trinity and Dani were still missing, Kennedy assumed locked up by the Seelie Court for her involvement in the b***h Elf Sybil’s death. Her gaze shifted to the buttermilk clouds over her head. The half-moon gave her plenty of light to see by and made her tiny silhouette nearly impossible to spot on the roof. Outfitted in a new black hoodie and black jeans, she looked more like a thug than the little scamp she appeared as before the Saint Patrick’s Day incident. At least her high-top sneakers still fit. They were irreplaceable. The incident… There was no other name she could call it. The memory of everything that happened was too painful. She lost so much that night and, in a way, gained so much more. Money she had, more than enough to buy a place to stay, but… did a survivor deserve the comfort of a warm bed and dry room? In Kennedy’s mind, not while so many of her family still suffered. She would not accept comfort until the twins were once again free. Deep in the park, she caught a glimpse of movement under the faux gas lights. Perhaps the Elves had finally decided to open the veil once again, and Kennedy could rescue the twins. If not rescue, maybe she could turn herself in, trade her freedom, and gain their release. There was always a chance. With the grace of a floundering albatross, Kennedy jumped from the three-story roofline to the snow-covered lawn below. Just over a week before, she would have dropped silently like a dark angel from the heights. Tonight, she slipped on the refrozen snow and skidded to a stop before plowing face-first into the sidewalk. She hated the new her. The adult body didn’t feel right. Just over a week ago, she sported the featureless figure and weight of a twelve-year-old girl. Now… now she had bumps and lumps in all the wrong places. When magic returned to the new world, she aged enough to enter puberty and grew the corresponding amount. Kennedy walked around in a stranger’s shell. She believed her body was a lemon with no owner’s manual. She wasn’t sure how it was meant to react to different stimuli, but the thing had to be broken. No mother or older sisters to help her through the changes, she relied on the internet for information. Everyone understood how accurate that turned out to be. Over the centuries, she’d watched her share of norms change from a child to a young adult. It seemed the changes took forever during the two or three years. Kennedy used to mock the poor children as they struggled with the new emotions and body… problems. This must be just another part of the curse visited upon her. With a grunt, she picked herself up from the snow. Another bullet point on the long list of indignations she was forced to endure since Saint Patrick’s Day. A scent drifted past, carried on the light breeze off the Atlantic. Something strange was in the park. That meant a lot in Kennedy’s Boston. From a scent, she could recognize most of the Fae who lived in, around, and under Boston, not to mention a fair number of humans and other creatures. This scent was different, and it wafted up from the general location of the portal that entered the land of the Seelie Court. She rushed across Beacon Street and down the hill. There was a chance she might find the gate open, and she could finally find out what happened to her family. The scent shifted. Kennedy stopped behind a tree. Now she caught a whiff of norm fear, and something more. Since the change, her nose didn’t work properly. It was becoming beyond aggravating. She silently cursed life for being unfair. In a flash, she pulled out her cell. There were twenty-five missed calls and dozens of unanswered messages, all from her friend Randell. She decided to keep ignoring them. With a few touches on the screen, she opened and used an app a friend of Randell’s made. It sniffed the numbers of active cell phones in the area. If she lost her prey, there was always a chance to search them out later. Numbers captured, she moved. Like a cat, she padded off in the direction of the scent, with the hope the Elven veil opened once again. There in the dark, the form of a female was pressed against a tree. Kennedy was too far away, but the reek of fear floated from the norm. She shouldn’t be in the park this late at night. The city was full of predators, human, Fae, and others. An unprotected norm was likely to disappear at the best of times. After the incident, too many strange happenings continued for Kennedy’s liking. The smell of fresh-cut wood and wet fur reached Kennedy. A shifter hunted the park, more than likely a lupine… a werewolf. That must be why the woman tried to hide. “Shit.” Kennedy wanted to leave the stupid female to her fate. The cops or Authority would deal with the aftermath of the pending attack, but Kennedy took a vow to uphold the peace. Protect the norms even if she didn’t want to. She hated that pledge. She looked at the buttermilk sky once again. The moon is only half full… The witch understood a shifter might change at any time, but under a full moon, it was more likely to lose control. That meant the likelihood this attack was premeditated and not from passion or opportunity grew dramatically. She recognized that not all shifters were created equally. She recently learned a witch or Fae could use magic to control a shifter. Randell’s attack the night of the event sprang to mind. Kennedy hated taking sides in a fight without enough information to make an informed decision. She glided down the slope, searching the shadows for the beast that stalked the woman in the dark. If this was Randell playing at s*x games with some undergrad, she might have to pin his ears back. Only a few paces from the norm, Kennedy listened to the woman’s ragged breathing. The thought of casting in full view of a normal turned her stomach. Not long ago, a stunt like that could have brought a shitstorm down on her head from multiple directions. Now, not so much. The Unseelie Court never cared about the rules. With the Seelie Court sequestered, and the Authority missing in action, the only group she needed to worry about was Boston’s finest… They had no unit that acknowledged magic or understood how to deal with it. The changes brought on by the event had been that earth-shattering. In her heart, she believed the worst was yet to come. Kennedy wouldn’t be surprised if vampire hunts became all the rage. The outcasts had been disenfranchised for so long, many races sought retribution for past sins. Normals, in the past, had remained ignorant concerning the availability of magical items. With the return of magic to the new world, Kennedy foresaw a new arms race as humans learned of, then fought to acquire, magical items. For centuries, she had longed for the return of magic. Now that it was here, she believed it would require a realignment of normality. Movement caught her attention, and the smell of wet fur grew stronger. She charged her hands. The smell of ozone reached her nose as the blue bolts of energy crackled between her fingers. The wolf walked in human form, on two legs. The man’s long hair was pulled back into a man-bun, his beard braided. His manner of dress and grooming screamed seventies outlaw biker, complete with a black leather motorcycle jacket. The creature should be put down for breaking too many clichés at a time. “It is time for you to leave.” Kennedy walked into the light of the pole lamp, placing herself between the wolf and the norm female. The man laughed. He took two steps closer. Of all the audacity. Kennedy let the magical power arc blue bolts between her hands. She hoped a show of force would be enough to chase the wolf off. He refused to stop. The shifter beast must have thought Kennedy would not resort to violence. He was wrong. The blue sparks jumped from Kennedy’s fingertips and blasted the creature in the chest. The force picked him off the ground, flinging him through the air, his body bouncing off a sugar maple tree. The burst of energy was accompanied by the crack and sizzle of a thunderclap. The sound of running footsteps reached Kennedy’s ears. Of course, the female ran. Kennedy had just lit up the park like an electric storm. She probably scared the crap out of the woman. The smoking lupine started to stand. He smelled of burnt dog now. It might take a bit more force to take him out. Kennedy didn’t want to kill the man, that would cause too many problems for her. A scream echoed through the park. It originated close to Kennedy’s favorite coffee shop on Tremont Street. It was also the direction the norm female ran. The biker-wolf howled into the night. Others, from too close, answered the call. Kennedy never thought there would be a hunting pack in the city tonight. She ran toward the scream. With luck, Kennedy would reach the woman and hustle her into Rosina’s coffee shop, Sweet Nuts and Beans, before the pack reached her. Kennedy was thankful the high-tops kept her from becoming unbalanced while she ran, compensating for her newfound awkwardness. Huddled under the streetlight was the woman, surrounded by a pair of bikers. By the stench of them, Kennedy assumed they were lupine as well. The slender Rosina stepped out of her shop. “You monsters go on and get!” The older woman slapped her hands together, trying to shoo the men away like dogs. They ignored the older woman. Behind, Kennedy caught the ragged breath of the beast she’d blasted hot on her heels. Judging the speed and distance, her escape would be close. Charging the two men that pushed the norm female between them, Kennedy also prepared her bolts of magical energy. With near perfect timing, she let the charge fly from each of her hands. The blast knocked the two bikers off their feet, skidding them into the sides of parked cars. The sound they made caused Kennedy’s blood to run cold. It was hard to describe a simultaneous whimper, howl, and growl. She needed to slow her escape. There was no way the human could keep pace with her magic high-tops. Rather than carry the woman, Kennedy half dragged her through the door, held open by Rosina, the head donut maker at Sweet Nuts and Beans. The howls still echoed down the canyons created by the buildings. The growls were much closer. Like right behind her. In the rush, Kennedy missed the last step into the building. She fell face-first into the brightly tiled room, pulling the norm female along for the ride. Both slid across the white tiled floor. Rosina slammed the door behind her. “Damned dogs getting bolder every night.” Rosina waved her towel at the men who stood outside the door, hands and noses pressed against the glass.