Read Chameleon (Supernaturals) for Free Online

“Warlock. Not coward.”
    I stumbled backward more shocked than I’d ever been in my life. I looked at Russ, then back at the pool, then back at Russ again and that was it—my knees buckled and the lights went out.
    . . . . .
    I opened my eyes to find I was lying on the pool deck while Russ was snapping his fingers in my face. When he saw that I was conscious again he said, “I imagined a lot of different reactions to me finally telling you the truth, but passing out wasn’t one of them. Way to be unpredictable.”
    The smile left Russ’s face when I pulled myself up and scrambled away from him. “Okay, look, you don’t have to freak out,” he said quickly.
    “That wasn’t possible!” I pointed at the pool that was still filled with plain old water. I felt bile rise in my throat. “That’s not possible!” I yelled again. “Magic isn’t real!”
    “Dani, calm down.” Russ slowly reached out to take my hand.
    “Stay back!” I gasped and stepped further away from his touch. I could see that my panicking was hurting Russ but I couldn’t help it. I mean the guy just transformed a pool full of red Jell-O back into water! “What are you? Are you even human ?”
    That question, or my cringing away from him, was too much for Russ. His voice shook and he didn’t even bother to try and cover it up. “I’m still the same guy you’ve known your entire life.”
    “You didn’t answer my question.”
    “No,” he whispered. He kept his eyes fixed on the pool, unable to look at me at all. “I’m not human. Not technically. I’m a supernatural being. A warlock.”
    When I didn’t respond, Russ finally met my eyes. “Nothing’s changed,” he promised. There was desperation in his voice. “Five minutes ago you were my best friend. You can still be my best friend. I’m the same person. You know me.”
    “Except I don’t know you, do I!” I screamed. “You’re…you’re…. How could you keep this from me our whole lives?”
    “We’re not supposed to tell humans about our existence because humans can’t handle the truth. They say maybe one in a thousand humans can accept us. Even my own mother couldn’t deal with it. After I was born, my dad finally told her the truth about himself and she freaked. That’s the reason she split. They’d been married for six years, and when she learned the truth she just up and left. I was three years old. We never saw her again. Dani, I was terrified that if I told you I would lose you too.”
    “I thought you said you weren’t a coward.” My heart wasn’t in the taunt. I was just going through the motions. I turned away from him, took a few steps further away and then sat down in the grass—forgetting entirely about the lace dress I was wearing.
    “Say something,” Russ begged.
    “I don’t know what to say.”
    Not human. Russ—my Russ—wasn’t human . It was so insane I couldn’t even process it. I had no idea what I was supposed to think or how I was supposed to feel. I was numb.
    Russ was now standing above me. “Are you okay?” he asked as he dropped to sit.
    “No,” I admitted. “I’m not okay. I’m very, very not okay.”
    Russ’s face crumpled and after another minute of silence he sat back and pulled his knees up to his chest. I’d never seen him vulnerable before. It made him look like he was twelve years old again. Somewhere deep inside me I wanted to reach out to him and comfort him. I didn’t like seeing him this way, and I especially didn’t like knowing that I was the reason he was so unsure of himself right now.
    He ran his hand through his hair and I half expected him to start ripping it out. “What can I do?” he asked. “How can I help you with this?”
    That was a really good question, but it was one I wasn’t ready to think about. “You can’t. I don’t know what I’m feeling right now.”
    “Okay, so you need a little time. I can give you that.”
    Time? What I needed was a nice, long nap. Or better yet, I