Kennedy Reborn

Chapter 1:-2

Still lying face down on the floor, the newcomer asked with a strange accent and a shaky voice, “What are those things?”

Kennedy wasn’t in a talkative mood. She hated being chased by outcasts after all the trouble they’d recently caused. “Lupine.”

“Just some misguided youths looking to express themselves in an unproductive way, I think.” Rosina stood at the door, watching the gray-haired men dressed in leather gather.

“Youths?” the woman asked.

Kennedy had had enough. It was time to blast these bastards back to the Stone Age. It took some work, but she untangled herself from the strange norm woman’s body. Free of entanglements, she took two steps to the door, reaching to give the beasts a full charge.

Rosina stopped her. “No need to get physical. They can’t come in here. This place is warded against… mischief.” The older woman motioned to the woman still sprawled on the floor. She whispered, “Don’t want people getting the wrong idea now, do we?”

Kennedy turned and stared at the wide-eyed woman who watched her sparking hands. She let the spell drop uncast. “Who are you?” Kennedy growled the question.

The woman answered in a very proper British sing-song voice. “Sorry to be rude, in the excitement I forgot my manners… I am Olivia Wesselby.”

Kennedy was certain she said the name like it should mean something to her, but it didn’t. “You sound from away, and from a proper, respectable place, so they probably never taught you… Lilly, it is dangerous to walk alone in the park at night.”

“Please call me Olivia… I am quite aware of the dangers any city may offer during the darkest hours, but some things can only be discovered with risk.” The young woman worked her way to standing, more agile than Kennedy expected a socialite to be. “My home sits adjacent to Hyde Park, perhaps you have heard of it?”

Kennedy had, but she really didn’t have time to banter with the woman. If the pack of bikers gained entry to the donut shop, the fur would surely fly.

“Why were you in the park if you understood the dangers?” Rosina asked.

Kennedy went about inspecting the charms and wards placed on the front of the shop. The magic was simple, primitive, but strong. It was a natural ability more than an incantation, like Kennedy used. The magic should be sufficient to keep the beasts at bay till dawn, or they tired of waiting.

“I am a graduate student…” Olivia paused for a moment. “Was that a spell she nearly cast?” she pointed to Kennedy.

Kennedy ignored the woman.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” Rosina answered, the appropriately puzzled look on her face.

“I have been studying the effects of magical lore, witches, and witchcraft in the world and the effects of such powers on the less fortunate of the world… homeless people such as her.” Olivia motioned with her head toward Kennedy.

The accent made the words sound more condescending than they were probably meant to be. Olivia probably didn’t mean to be rude, but cultural differences aside, Kennedy was ready to introduce the British woman’s nose to her fist.

Rosina stepped in, trying to defuse the situation. “And you pay to study this? Seems like a waste of good money… that might go to help some of those in the world less fortunate than yourself.” The older woman motioned to the plate glass window and the gang of men that stood outside.

Kennedy muttered the party line, “You’re wasting your time and money… Magic and monsters aren’t real.” She turned to face the window with Rosina.

One of the bushier men, hair and beard wild and unkept, slammed his fists into the window with a resounding boom. At over six feet, he was huge compared to Kennedy and the other women. When the glass didn’t shatter under the assault, he shifted to beating his head on the window. The pane held solid. It was easy to see the man grew more furious by the second, but when he started to shift in full view of the shop’s occupants, Kennedy knew the s**t was about to hit the fan. He grew, now towering over seven feet.

“That appears to be fairly real,” Olivia said, outstretched finger pointing at the shifting wolfman.

“Shush, Liv, while we try to think of a way out of this mess… short of throwing you to the wolves.” It was the first time that cliché fit so perfectly in 327 years. “Will your wards hold them?” The last question was directed to Rosina.

Several others in the pack started to shift.

With a strained look on her face, Rosina answered, “I’m not sure…”

Before the older woman finished, the first creature to shift cracked the picture window with his head. A smear of blood was left on the site of the impact.

Rosina backed to the bar and the racks of donuts waiting for the morning rush. Kennedy followed her, reaching out and grabbing the obnoxious Olivia by the arm and pulling her away from the window.

“What happens if they get in?” Even with the stress in her voice, there was something about her accent that sounded classy.

Kennedy resented the grad student all the more.

Rosina tried to calm them. “Offer them donuts?” The humor fell flatter than a slice of toast. The fleshy waitress stepped forward with a broom at the ready. From the bristles sprouted sprigs of wolf’s bane. She held the shaft like a weapon ready to clean the clock of any that made it into her shop.

The young witch stepped in front of Olivia, effectively blocking her view. “Why are they after you?” Kennedy asked.

Olivia shook her head. “I don’t know. I was watching the pond. I have found several reports of strange events happening in that part of the park. I’m working to prove the existence of magic and magical creatures.”

Kennedy shook her head. “You’re a cryptozoologist?”

Olivia shrugged. “Not likely… the university would never approve of such an unorthodox field of study. My majors are anthropology and sociology.

It seemed the norm was the victim of bad luck. Simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, but Kennedy doubted it.

The window gave way. Kennedy charged her spell and let loose with her full power. The blue bolt hit the first in the breach and arced into the others lightning-fast, but she knew the force lost power with each contact it made.

The leader fell forward, the others only grew wilder, and the few that hadn’t started the change shifted to wolf form. Howls met the sound of tearing clothing.

The beasts should have waded through the shattered window and into the shop, but something held them in place. Only the leader struggled to regain his footing past the broken pane.

Kennedy noticed the green vines of Boston ivy intertwining around the monster’s bodies. Growing impossibly fast, something or someone came to their rescue. From above, a wave of string bats attacked the lupine mob. The flying constructs emitted a high-pitched screech with each swoop attack. The wolves not entangled ran from the noise, their ears slicked back against the sound.

Kennedy only knew of two witches who attacked with such unassuming spells as vines and string bats. Trinity and Dani had escaped and once again came to her rescue.

The attack broken, the beasts struggled to break free of the green tendrils. The remaining wolves gnawed and clawed to free themselves.

The alpha wolf remained tangled in vines as Kennedy trapped him in a hold spell for good measure. His pack ran yelping in pain, string bats forcing the beasts into retreat.

Olivia asked, “What were you saying about magic and creatures not being real?”

Kennedy shot a glare over her shoulder before shouting out the shattered window. “Trinity… Dani, get in here while they are gone. We might not have much time.”

Two figures stepped into the light of the nearest streetlight. They’d aged like Kennedy, but she would have recognized the fraternal twins after centuries, if need be. It took all the restraint Kennedy had not to run into the street at the first sight of her covenmates. The male and female twins ran from under the streetlight, past the held creature, and bounded into the coffee shop.

The leader of the wolf pack became Kennedy’s least concern. The reunion with the twins took her total concentration. Hugs, kisses, and more hugs made up the majority of the reunion.

“I’m sorry I didn’t rescue you… There was a time I thought you were both dead…” Kennedy didn’t know where to begin. Her emotions ran away with her, too many feelings at once, and her mind flowed with erratic hormones from her recent passage to puberty. The two who joined her found it equally difficult to speak. The three tried talking all at once, failed, stopped, and all started once again.

“I understand this is emotional and all, but can we stop long enough to take care of Mister Pushy here?” Rosina pushed the wolf’s bane into the leader’s human face.

Kennedy had been too preoccupied to notice the biker had shifted back to human form and now stood held by her spell, naked, surrounded by broken glass, right inside the doughnut shop.

“Why did you attack this young woman?” Rosina shrieked.

Kennedy had never heard the waitress sound so… full of rage.

She never gave him a chance to answer. “Look what you have done to my shop. Tell me why, or I will turn you into a meat pie and sell your carcass at bargain prices.”

From the cringe, if the biker could have melted into the floor, he would have. Kennedy had never witnessed a sight like it before.

“We were just out to have some fun… We meant no harm by it. Just some harmless fun. She’s just a norm, after all.” The man twice Rosina’s size trembled at her rage.

Kennedy had never discovered what manner of creature the woman baker was, but she was beginning to believe it was better to have her as a friend than an enemy. The man cowered like a whipped dog.

“This is what’s going to happen. I’m going to release you, then you are going to collect your pack and come back and clean up this mess. Then you will all write a letter of apology to me.” Rosina punctuated each sentence with a slap on his nose with the wolf’s bane. “When those are finished, you will seek out this woman and apologize to her in person for your bad manners.” She pointed toward Olivia.

“Aww… Miss, she is just a norm,” the old man groveled. The sound reminded Kennedy of a grounded teen.

Rosina slapped the man hard in the face. “That makes no difference, understand me? You attacked her in my house. You disrespected me and someone under my protection.” The beating with the flowers continued. Each time a purple bloom was knocked off, two replaced it. “Once you’re finished with… Olivia, you will find Kennedy and apologize for the same. You have two days. If you have not finished your task in two days, I will put such a hex on you and your pack…” The full-set woman never finished telling what the curse might be. Often, that was the most powerful part of a curse: the mind’s overreaction to what hell might be called down upon the victim.

With a snap of her fingers, Rosina broke Kennedy’s holding spell.

The four young-looking people stood in shock as the nude biker picked up the tattered remnants of his clothing and gingerly worked his barefoot body over the broken glass and out of sight.

“Sorry for the mess.” Rosina turned and marched back to the counter. “How about a donut and a hot cup for your troubles?”

Kennedy wasn’t sure what she’d witnessed, but eventually, she would need to learn what manner of creature Rosina was to order around the leader of the pack like that. Surely the woman had larger nuts than most of the men Kennedy knew.