Soulless

S O U L L E S S: CHAPTER 4

"Hey, stranger."

I parked my bike out the back of my dad's small store and shielded my eyes from my sun with a smile. 

Corvin was waiting in his usual spot for me, the inky feathered raven seemed to be everywhere as he waited for me. His feathers ruffled in content as I approached, black eyes watching me calmly.

Corvin's ink stained wings shivered as I stroked a finger down his surprisingly soft neck and scratched him under his chin. 

I had always admired the way light seemed to reflect of his feathers, it was like his own rainbow weaved into his body. His ebony beak parted to caw once in content and his eyes slipped shut.

"Adriana! Is that blasted bird out there!?" A voice hollered from inside and Corvin's beady eyes almost instantly narrowed at the sound of my father's voice. He was as clever as a raven could be- sometimes I believed that he actually knew what was being said in the world, "Give it a swat will you!?"

Muttering under my breath, I dumped my backpack on the ground as I stepped inside and casted my dad an unimpressed glance, "Shameless." I scolded pulling my sweaty hair back into a ponytail and he rolled his eyes at me, "What did Corvin ever do to you? He hunted those mice in the garden down."

"And left them on my doorstep." Dad reminded me grimly from where he done the stock. Thick hair pushed back with a bandanna and dressed in his casual uniform that was jeans and a loose shirt, "You shouldn't name them, you know. Gives them power."

Calla raised her eyes from where she was hunched over a make-shift desk of crates and flicked up one brow in mockery, "Power?" She repeated through a snort and I joined, "Like what? Afraid he's going to hex you, uncle Hector?"

"She spends too much time with you." Dad grunted in displeasure and threw a sealed bottle of water at me, "Hydrate. Thanks for covering for Connie, apparently old Mrs Bran popped that other hip."

Can't say I'm surprised. That old wench was always swinging around her cane, trying to beat away any animals that got too close to her. 

Sometimes I wished that Corvin would just fly into her face- she once called me a freak of nature. I wasn't as bothered, but she was when I told her to eat a mint.

"Tell me about this new hotty I've heard so much about!" Bonnie greeted from the top of a ladder in the shop front, and she glanced over her shoulder at me, "Is it true that he's the new island babe?"

Bonnie was my dad's life-long, and probably only, friend. I always wondered what would happen if they ever acted on the crazy intense chemistry between them, anyone would have to be blind not to see it. As far as I knew; dad never dated again after my mother left us.

Although, sometimes I wondered if he actually cared for dating, or anything romantic.

"He's an ass." I retorted propping myself against the check-out counter, "But he's a hot ass."

A low hum came from Bonnie as she jumped from the ladder and landed perfectly on the soles of her feet, "Dangerous combo." She acknowledged running her hand through her voluminous midnight hair and she looked at me with a smirk, "I bet he's wicked sexy though. A new island bad boy, huh?"

"I didn't realize we had a current bad boy, unless you count Marc Doon for that graffiti scandal?" I all but laughed. Trouble makers weren't something we ran short of but I don't think we'd ever had a real labelled 'bad boy' to speak of, "I didn't see any of the others; apparently, it's a big family."

Bonnie made a noise in the back of her throat, "Oh yeah, I heard. Cousin's and everything." She stated.

Just then the doorbell jingled as someone stepped inside and I turned my head to see a flash of deep amber hair before whoever it was vanished behind one of the shelves.