Sacrifice (#1 Twin's Service series) UNEDITED

Chapter 1

Knowing that there weren't god's walking earth at the moment kind of made me question whether I had really understood what was written in the scroll. After unsuccessfully trying to decipher some more of the scroll I shoved it back in my drawer before stalking into my brothers office. His desk was pushed against the far wall and there was a large white board he'd nailed to another. A female and male Werewolf sat in comfy chairs across from it paying attention to what Jared was saying.

".. need to have a collective meeting with all people involved in our community and set up a database. Celise is good with documenting information and I know she can figure out how to set up a secure server for us as well."

He noticed me standing by the door and told the two to try to get in touch with other Shifters in the City or at least have Cane do it as he released them from his lecture. Jared had wavy dark brown hair, close to black, that fell across his forehead more often than not. He'd constantly have to push it out of his tourqiouse eyes. We looked very similar but not in an obvious way, just that we were related. He was taller than I was at 5'5'' but than again he was a man.

"What's bothering you?"

Jared's arm wrapped around my shoulders as he led me towards a recently vacated chair.

I swiped my hair behind my ears and leaned back into it. "I'm just frustrated. I have no way to understand what the hell is said in those scrolls. All I've got is that they only activate when god's walk the earth. Or something like that."

His eyebrows arched up as he folded his muscular arms across his chest and leaned a hip against his desk. "Interesting. Maybe they'll have more information about your specific Calling at the Coven's joint Library. Although it's not as big as the one in Europe it's got copies of the important books."

"You're right. I'll call Auntie B and ask her if she can ask Essie if I can come over to look through it." Essie was short for Esmerelda which was one of our younger Coven members. Not to say she was younger than I was but she was definitely not over a hundred like my Auntie B. Of course Auntie never disclosed how old she was exactly always saying 'A women never tells her age'.

Mage's aged slowly much like the Shapeshifters. It had been a long standing unknown among the Supernatural community why we didn't age like regular humans but we were going on the theory about how much magic someone had. If you looked at Cane with his young appearance it could be imagined why.

"What else is on your mind," Jared's full lips tilted upward with a knowing smirk. We shared a strong mental link that, when opened, we could talk to one another and even share our magic amongst ourselves. I'd been blocking him off from intruding in my thoughts ever since I'd hit puberty but that didn't mean he couldn't pick up on my emotions.

I sighed dramatically and put a hand to my forehead, "You're going to make me fend for myself amongst the Coven? How cruel, brother."

"Pfft. You don't need me there to fend anyone off. The only time you want me to go with you when dealing with any Coven members is when you're up to no good and want me to distract them."

"Okay," I straightened in my seat and looked at him seriously, "I need to get into the off limits section in the Library. But Essie always has the key with her and you're really good at distracting the women in the Coven."

He rolled his pretty eyes at me with their long lashes sweeping across his ivory skin. "Seriously? We're really busy with this whole starting up essentially a Supernatural Police Force and you want me to go make googly eyes at Essie. Who, might I add, is older than our mother was?"

"She doesn't look old though!" My defence was weak and I knew it but it didn't matter anyways. Jared would complain and bitch about having to be look out in many of my schemes but he'd still go along with it. I'd asked him once why he went along with my shenanigans and his response was 'Would I let my arm go anywhere without me'. I figured that meant he loved me.

"When are you heading over to the Library?"

"Well I've got to meet Dimitri tonight when he wakes from his death sleep so sometime soon. That is, whenever you're available?"

"Give me fifteen minutes to print out the notice I want to have copies made of and instruct Celise on what I need her to do while we're out. Hopefully this doesn't take long. I've got to try to track down someone who has been avoiding signing divorce papers. She got caught cheating so won't be receiving any money from her rich husband. Figures. Women are vampires, leeching men of their money."

I knew he was teasing me. He was one of those rare men that actually treated women well. He'd been the only male in a family of two women. Which meant that he thought it was his responsibility to protect and provide for us even at the age of 5.

Fifteen minutes later we were both packed into the car and heading straight across the city to where the Coven's joint Library was. Technically it was Essie's house and they'd put an underground space at that location which was locked with spells only the Librarian knew. If I wanted to travel about five hours I could get to one of the portals for the pocket dimension of the Mage Grand Library but I'd take my chances with the one closer first.

"So," I broke the silence that had permeated the car, "What have you found out about your condition?"

I knew it wasn't a condition but I could feel the heat and urge to hunt prey through the woods which echoed down our link. So I knew Jared was itching in his own skin. I was really worried about him.

"I've done a lot of research on Shapeshifting, Animal Spirits, and Shamans. At first I started with Shapeshifting since my wolf is technically one gained from one of the Werewolves. The data was somewhat useful but also interesting. Many theories on how the first shapeshifter was born was about a human swallowing an animal's spirit along with the kill. Speculation on how that could be true would be that eating the animal raw and drinking down their blood essence is what gained them the abilities. Once I went down this path, since it sounded similar to my difficulties, it led me further into the past with Shamans," he had turned his body to face me as he spoke but I kept my eyes on the road. "Shamans would sometimes use animal spirits for totems and draw power from these spirits. Animals are very pure and untainted by evil. They never kill for pleasure but simply for protection or food. Anyways, another speculation on how the first shapeshifter was created was that a Shaman swallowed the spirit but didn't need the blood essence. Now if you look at me, I am more similar to a Shaman who has swallowed their Animal totem rather than a human who has swallowed the spirit and blood essence. If I'm not mistaken the DNA in a Shapeshifter is altered with specific genetic make-up that corellates with their animal."

"You've seen Shapeshifters DNA? How do you even understand this stuff?"

My shock was palpable at how smart my brother was. I hadn't known he was that intelligent, which made me blush a bit in shame. I mean come on, beauty and brains? Talk about double trouble and not in the twin sense.

He smirked at my thoughts and I realized I had let that slip. "I actually dated a Werelynx who had graduated with a PhD." Which meant she was older than us.

"She had done a lot of studies on different Shapeshifters blood and even taken samples from animals that she could find. Anyways, needless to say I think the best way to fix my problem and be able to release the wolf inside of me would be to look up more information on how the Shaman's were able to shapeshift without being infected. I'm guessing there's a certain spell I can use that won't make my body rebreak and reform to become the wolf but one minute human and the next wolf."

"I can see why that would make more sense. It's actually making more sense the more that I think about it. Especially with how different made and born Shapeshifters are when they shift forms. I've only ever seen the difference of Cane's shift but I know his is smooth and it's almost like his bones melt into his new shape instead of breaking and reknitting themselves."

"Shamans supposedly shifted forms almost instantly in magic. So it's similar to how Cane's shift is but not exactly. I'm unsure if I'm on the right track but I'm going to do some more research and see if I can find the spell that they used, if any."

We both mulled it over as I turned into a residential area where Essie lived. As I pulled into the driveway of a quiant little blue house that screamed 'normal' and shut off the car, I decided I'd also look to see if there was anything pertaining to Jared's issue while I was sneaking around.