CELESTIAL | 13.1
"EVOLVED, LIKE A SCIENCE EXPERIMENT"
THE BOY WHO STILL HAS A LOT OF
GOOD TO DO
SPRING BREAK WAS COMING TO AN END and Natalie had been distracting herself to prevent herself from thinking about the inevitable that was going to occur that night. The full moon. She was nervous for several reasons, the first being that she was scared to have her bones break in order to shift. The second being possibly discovering her mate.
So, to distract herself from possibly the worst night of her life, Natalie decided to figure out how the Other Side was constructed and how she and Hope could possibly replicate that. So far in her studies of her aunt's past research as well as the history of Qetsiyah, Natalie was certain that there was no way she and Hope would be able to do it.
Natalie sighed as she closed another book and looked out at the common area. She set her sights on Rafael who was walking down the hall. She had actually wanted to speak with him to ask about his first shifting.
"Rafael!" Natalie called after the werewolf who seemed to be in a rush.
"Natalie, what's up?" he asked her, glancing around the halls nervously.
"You seem even more jittery than I am," Natalie says with a laugh.
"Sorry," Rafael apologizes with a smile, "Full moon."
Natalie points a finger at him, "That's actually what I wanted to ask you about. Tonight, is my first time shifting and I wanted to know what I'm in for?"
His eyebrows knit together in confusion and Natalie forgot that everyone didn't know that she was a hybrid, "I'm a hybrid, my mom was a witch, dad was a wolf."
"Oh," Rafael said nodding his head, "Um cool. Shifting, it's hard to explain. Believe me when I say that it is the worst kind of pain, but once you get past the initial breaking of your bones, it's quite liberating."
Natalie nods at him with a smile, "Painful, got it."
He chuckles, "Trust me, everything is gonna be okay. I have to go do something but maybe I could help you out tonight? So, you won't have to be alone."
"That'd be great," Natalie tells him, "Thanks."
Rafael offers her a parting smile and wave before heading out the front door of the Salvatore School. If Natalie shifted with Rafael in the transition cells, then she wouldn't shift in front of Hope or Josie and her love life was still something that she had control over.
"Hey there."
Natalie turns to see Josie standing behind her with a wide grin on her face. Josie was wearing a navy Salvatore School hoodie and Natalie practically melted at the sight. Even when wearing simple clothes, Josie looked amazing.
"Hey yourself," Natalie greets, "What's up?"
"Nothing," Josie tells her with a little shrug, "I just missed you. Where have you been?"
"Reading up on the Other Side," Natalie answers, "Jonas says that if Hope and I can build it, then we can stop Malivore. The monsters wouldn't be able to be absorbed by Malivore any longer and then we can go back to the order of the universe."
Josie chuckles as she looks at her, "Which is?"
"Vampires, werewolves, and witches!" Natalie exclaims, "I'm tired of dealing with Halloween characters."
Josie shakes her head, a smile on her lips, "Are you worried about tonight?"
"A little," Natalie answers, which was the understatement of the century. She was terrified about tonight.
"I wish I could be there with you," Josie tells her. In Natalie's opinion, Josie being there would also be a terrible idea because being mated to Josie was just as terrifying as being mated to Hope.
"That would be a terrible idea because I might hurt you," Natalie tells her, "But I wish you could be there as well."
"How about I be there for you when you shift back?" Josie tells her, "I'll bring you cookies."
"Cookies after having all of your bones break, sounds great," Natalie says with a laugh. Josie pouts as she looks at her, only causing Natalie to laugh harder.
"Fine, no cookies for you," Josie tells her, and Natalie stops laughing.
"Wait, I was joking, I actually do want the cookies."
Josie kisses her on the cheek, "Then I'll make them for you."
"You're the best," Natalie tells her with a grin.
Josie shrugs, grinning widely at her, "I try."
Natalie bites her lip nervously, "So that second date?"
Josie grins at her, "It's in the works. I think you're really gonna like what I have planned."
She can't help but to relax at the words. A date with Josie was what she needed to focus on. Hope wasn't her mate. It was a coincidence that they happened to balance witch nature.
They were not mates. They simply weren't.
"Sounds good," Natalie tells her, "I'm really looking forward to it."
•••
Natalie wouldn't say that she's impulsive. Okay, maybe she was a little impulsive, but she blamed that on the werewolf side of her. Up until recently, she had been terrified of her life in the supernatural world, and she still was but now that she was a full hybrid, some of the fear evaporated before her eyes.
So she decided to take a break from everything and got help from the one person she knew would help her with the task she wanted to complete.
Kaleb looks down at the crossbow in his hand and then back up at Natalie, "You sure about this?"
Natalie nods her head eagerly, "I am so sure."
Kaleb looks at her once more before shrugging and aiming the crossbow at Natalie, "Ready?"
Natalie nods her head and Kaleb pulls the trigger of the crossbow. The arrow sails right over her head and Natalie frowns as she looks at Kaleb.
"Sorry, let's try it again," he says loading the crossbow again.
Kaleb aims again before pulling the trigger. Natalie keeps her eye on the arrow before reaching out and grabbing it. She looks at the arrow in her hand and then back at Kaleb.
"Werewolf reflexes!" Natalie exclaims.
"You're really a hybrid, huh?" Kaleb asks her, lowering the crossbow.
"Yeah," Natalie says with a sigh. She quickly shakes any thoughts of the inevitable night to come, "Load that bow up, I want to go again."
Kaleb chuckles as he grabs another arrow and loads it, "You're crazy, has anyone ever told you that?"
Natalie chuckles, "A few people. Also, you're a little crazy too. No one else would come out here with me out of fear of killing me."
"Hey if you're confident that you'll catch the arrow, then so am I," Kaleb tells her.
Natalie rubs her hands together and jumps up and down as she hypes herself up, "Alright, take two."
Kaleb is about to pull the trigger, but the bow suddenly falls out of his hands. Natalie stops jumping and looks around the woods, only to see Hope walking toward them with a frown on her lips.
"Seriously Natalie?" Hope says, "You're letting him shoot arrows at you?"
Natalie laughs nervously, "Would you believe me if I said no?"
"No," Hope tells her, "Geez I get that you triggered your curse and you feel invincible now, but you're not. An arrow to the heart could kill you!"
"But we weren't aiming for my heart," Natalie says, "And I have super quick reflexes."
Natalie boxes the air and when she goes to kick, Hope reaches out and grabs her leg. Natalie looks at the tribrid who takes the opportunity to throw Natalie to the ground. She lands on her back wincing in pain.
"Damn," Kaleb says placing his hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter.
Natalie exhales before getting up and brushing the leaves off her back. She narrows her eyes at Hope, lifting her fists up as she takes a fighting stance, "Let's fight."
Hope laughs, "I'd kick your ass, Natalie."
Natalie shrugs, smirking at Hope, "Come kick it then."
Hope doesn't hesitate as she launches herself at Natalie with a fury of punches. Thanks to her new reflexes, Natalie was able to dodge them quick and easily. When she saw an opening, she swiped Hope's from under her, making her fall to the ground.
"Looks like I'm the one kicking your ass," Natalie says with a laugh. Her laughter is short lived when Hope grabs her leg and brings her down. She falls with a thud, knocking the wind out of her. Hope climbs on top of her, placing her forearm on Natalie's throat.
"Okay, okay," Natalie says before tapping her hand on Hope's wrist, symbolizing her surrender.
Hope smiles at her and leans back, still sitting on top of Natalie. Natalie looks up and notices the way the sun reflected in Hope's eyes. Natalie had always like Hope's eyes. They were dark, almost brown looking, but in the sunlight, they appeared like sapphires.
"Wow I should have placed money on that," Kaleb says, breaking Natalie and Hope's shared gaze.
"It was never in doubt that I'd win," Hope says standing up. She extends her hand to Natalie who takes it, allowing Hope to help her to her feet.
"Whatever," Natalie says, "Give me a couple of weeks in training and I'll be the one on top. I mean it's been a week and I've already perfected arrow catching. Come on Kaleb, let's show her."
Kaleb looks wearily at Hope, who shakes her head, "Sorry Nat, I'm not letting Hope kick my ass today."
Natalie glances over at Hope, who smiles innocently at her.
"You suck."
Hope smiles, "Just trying to keep you alive."
"Sure," Natalie says, rolling her eyes.
Kaleb points back in the direction of the school, "Since my assistance is no longer needed, I'm going to go scare some of the younger students."
"Kaleb," Natalie says, "You can't go around frightening the youth."
He chuckles, "Yes I can."
And with that he takes off back toward the school, leaving Natalie and Hope alone. The tribrid looks at her, "So."
"So," Natalie replies, "Excited for tonight?"
"What's tonight?" Hope asks and Natalie is suddenly reminded that Hope doesn't have to shift during the full moon since she was a descendant of the Crescent Pack.
"The full moon, but you don't have to shift. Perks of being purebred," Natalie teases and Hope scrunches her nose up at the statement.
"Saying that makes me feel icky. Besides, I'm sure that after tomorrow, you won't have to shift every full moon either," Hope tells her.
"And why not?" Natalie asks curiously. She didn't know what pack her father descended from because he had been a rogue wolf which Natalie didn't understand. She hated the idea of being alone.
"You're a hybrid, plus with the dark magic I think that you're a little evolved."
Natalie laughs, "Evolved, like a science experiment."
Hope rolls her eyes, "You know I didn't mean it like that."
"I know," Natalie says. She glances at the tree line leading back to the school, "I've been looking into the Other Side."
"And?" Hope asks her.
"I don't think we can do it," Natalie tells her, "Even if we were strong enough to create the Other Side, we need an anchor, which means we'd need an immortal to hold it together, but then they'd feel every supernatural death, so being the anchor is kind of a bad job."
Hope shrugs, "I can do it."
Natalie closes her eyes, unsurprised at Hope's words, "I'm not letting you become the anchor for the Other Side."
"But if it could solve our Malivore-"
"No Hope," Natalie says firmly, "You're not sacrificing yourself. End of discussion."
"Why do you care what I do?" Hope asks her, crossing her arms over her chest, "It's not like we're dating or anything."
Natalie's eyebrows raise on her head, "That comment was very passive aggressive."
"It was meant to be," Hope tells her, "I told you that I have feelings for you and yeah I wasn't expecting much, but you know a bit of a reaction would be nice."
"What reaction did you want, Hope?" Natalie asks, growing confused with their conversation.
"I don't know!" Hope says, "But I wanted more. I just – I feel like there's this connection between us, you know? And I was hoping that I wasn't alone in that feeling."
Natalie couldn't deny that there was a part of her that did feel connected to Hope, but she didn't know if that was genuinely her bond with Hope, or nature forcing the two of them together to balance out the universe.
"You do, don't you?" Hope says softly, taking Natalie out her thoughts.
"I do," Natalie states, "But I don't know if it's like that."
"Like-"
"Romantically," Natalie states. Sure, she had dreamt of kissing Hope, but it had been a nightmare, right?
Hope seems to deflate in front of her and Natalie instantly regrets her words, "Hope-"
"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so forceful-"
"You weren't forceful," Natalie tells her. She'd never been in this situation before and she was certain that she was handling it wrong, "I'm really sorry."
Hope smiles at her and Natalie can tell that she's forcing it, "It's fine, I um I think I'm gonna go inside and read upon the Other Side for myself."
Natalie nods, "Um sure."
"Good luck tonight," Hope tells her before heading back toward the school. Natalie watches Hope's retreating figure with a huge sense of guilt in her gut. Natalie sighed as she kicked a stick.
She sucked.
•••
"Hope?"
"Hi Aunt Freya," Hope greets the projection of her aunt.
Freya frowns as she looks at her niece, "What's wrong?"
Hope nibbles on her lower lip nervously, "I told Natalie."
That's all it takes for Freya to know what was wrong with Hope. She sits down on her bed, appearing to Hope as though she were sitting beside her.
"I'm sorry, Hope."
The tribrid sighs, "I know it's crazy, but Keelin said that she knew you were the one without needing the mate bond and I don't know, I guess I was projecting that on to Natalie because I wanted her to like me."
"Does she not like you?" Freya asks.
"She said that she does, but not romantically," Hope runs a hand through her hair in frustration, "Why do I ruin everything? I had a good thing going! Natalie and I were best friends and then I had to go and admit my feelings for her!"
Freya watches as her niece stands from the bed and begins to pace the length of the room, "Hope," she calls to her.
"No, I ruin everything!"
The lights in the room flicker and Hope calms immediately, her anger morphing into sadness as a tear slips down her cheeks. Freya sits there staring helplessly at her niece, wishing that she could hug her.
"This is just one girl, Hope," Freya tells her, "There will be plenty of others."
"Maybe," Hope says, "But none of them will be Natalie."
There's a knock on the door before it's shoved open. Hope's attention shifts from the hologram to Josie who is standing in the doorway.
"It's Natalie."
"What's wrong?" Hope asks her.
"She went looking for Rafael, but she didn't come back and it's dark Hope which means she's out there and she's by herself and – "
"Hey," Hope says heading over to Josie and standing in front of her, "It's gonna be okay, we're going to find her."
Josie swallows and nods her head, her worry for Natalie written all over her face. Hope looks at the projection of her aunt, "I have to go."
Freya nods, "I know. Update me later."
"I will," Hope says. Freya offers her one last parting smile before it's Josie and Hope left alone in the room.
"She'd couldn't get far on foot, so she's most likely in the woods," Hope says as she grabs her sweater from the back of her chair and shrugs it on.
She and Josie rush out of her room and down the stairs, "What happens when you shift? I know that wolves are extremely dangerous to vampires, but what about us? What about other humans?"
Hope sighs, "I'm not sure. It would be easy if we knew the lineage of Natalie's wolf side, but her dad was a rogue. We should be fine. I don't think Natalie would hurt either of us."
"Will she know it's us?" Josie asks as they stand at the front entrance of the school.
Hope nods her head, "She'll know it's us."
They wander the woods near the school, but don't find anything. It didn't help that it was also eerily silent outside. They weren't picking up on anything.
"Can't we do a spell?" Josie asks. Hope could tell that she was growing impatient and anxious with their search.
"Sure," Hope answers, "But it's best if we don't. We want to find Natalie, but we don't want her to notice us."
"Why not?" Josie asks her.
"Because of the mating thing," Hope answers and Josie stops walking.
"Mating?" she asks, "What the hell does that mean?"
Hope really wishes she had kept her mouth shut. She'd thought that Natalie had told Josie about the mating thing, especially since they were best friends and told each other everything.
"Werewolves identify their mates during the full moon," Hope explains, "Which means it wouldn't be smart for Natalie to see you right now."
"Or you," Josie answers.
"Josie, I'm sorry," Hope apologizes, "I don't want to ruin anything between the two of you, it's just when you were gone-"
"It's fine, Hope," Josie says shaking her head, "It's not like I have a monopoly on Natalie."
"But you kind of do," Hope replies, "Natalie is willing to do anything for you. You should hear the way she talks about you."
Josie laughs softly as she looks at down at the forest floor, "Yeah well you should see the way she looks at you."
"Natalie said she wasn't interested in me romantically," Hope says, really not trying to get her hopes up.
They lapse back into silence which is quickly disturbed by the sound of a low growl. The two teens stop walking and look around. Hope doesn't notice anything under the bright glow of the moon, but Josie does.
"Hope," she says tapping the tribrid on the arm. Hope turns and notices a pair of golden eyes staring at the two of them.
The growling continues as the wolf makes its way through the tree line toward them. Hope and Josie both take a step back as the wolf draws nearer to them. The fur of the wolf was golden, a shade that Hope had never seen before. The only other werewolf that wasn't in the transition cells was Rafael and his fur was black.
"Natalie?" Hope says softly.
The low growling comes to a stop and that's all Hope needs to know that it's Natalie standing before them. She smiles at the hybrid, even in wolf form Natalie was beautiful.
"Nat," Josie says in awe, "You're beautiful."
Natalie steps forward, bumping her nose against Josie, causing her to laugh. Josie visibly relaxes, knowing that it's Natalie standing in front of her. She reaches her hand out and runs it through Natalie's golden fur.
"I wish I had a frisbee right now, so that we could play fetch," Josie tells her, and Hope's never heard a wolf scoff before, but she's sure that's the noise that Natalie just made. Hope watches the two of them, envy sitting in the pit of her stomach like an anchor.
"Hey, I'm gonna keep looking for Rafael," Hope says, gaining both of their attention.
Natalie looks away from Josie and at Hope and simply stares at her. Golden eyes bore into Hope, making her feel slightly uncomfortable. It's completely unexpected when Natalie charges at Hope, tackling her to the ground. She holds her there with a paw on her chest.
"Natalie!" Josie exclaims, running over to the two of them.
Natalie snarls at Hope before stepping off of her. She spares Josie one last glance before disappearing in the tree line.
Hope sits up on the ground and looks at Josie who rushes over to check on her, "What was that about?"
Hope was pretty sure she knew what it was, but she wasn't certain, which meant that she probably shouldn't say anything.
"I'm not sure."
That was a lie.