The Price of Power (The Price of Secrets Series Book 2) by Ashley Drake Page A

thinking about having sex with Mike! I knew she was in love with him but I didn’t think she was at that point yet.
        “Is he pressuring you into it?” Phoebe went into protective mode. I felt her have a flashback of Brad talking her into giving him her virginity and then dropping her. She was in a dark state of mind when we found her that day at the dam. She had turned her back on us, thinking we were against her having a boyfriend and she was afraid that she had lost us too. We were there to help her pick up the pieces and put her life back together. So, of course, her fears for Jaycee were of the worst case scenario.
        “No, it’s nothing like that.” Jaycee squeezed Phoebe’s hand. “But thanks for worrying about me. In fact this is my idea, Mike doesn’t have a clue I’m considering it.”
        “Just think it through because, trust me, it’s not something you can take back. Don’t get me wrong, Mike is nothing like…” still struggling to even say his name, “Brad, but you don’t get a second chance on your first time.”
        “I know and I only said I was thinking about it. It’s not like I’m ready to do it tomorrow. Who saved room for dessert?”
        She’s lying, I can feel it. She regrets saying anything at all about it and is now trying to downplay it. I’m not going to call her out on it until I get her alone.
        “I think I’m gonna cry, it’s beautiful. Thank you, I love it!” Jaycee held the velvet wrapped crystal in her hand. I chose not to put it in a bag or a box, I gave it to her just as it had been given to me. “And the Indian guy really said it was for me?”
        “You’re welcome, and yes he said to give it to you. Remember, he also said not to put a protection spell, or any spell, on it because the crystal would do what it needs to do when it needs to do it.” I had told her the entire story before letting her see it because I was afraid that once she had it she would be too busy
     
     
    admiring it to pay me any attention. She’s like that with bright, shiny objects.
        Now for the test. “Hold it, without the cloth.”
        She held her breath as she slowly released the crystal from it’s barrier. As soon as it touched her skin it started to glow. No, glow is not the right word, it beamed. What looked like a thousand rays of pure blue light shot out of the crystal and radiated up her arm, and encompassed her body.
        “Oh shit! Did it do that to you when you touched it?” Jaycee was scared, shocked and excited all at the same time.
        “Kinda, but no where near to that extent.”
        When Daniel and I held the crystal it glowed continuously, but with Jaycee it was like the crystal’s light, or power, absorbed into her. The only thing that was left was an intense magnification of her aura, which only I could see. The thickness of the aura, that outlines the body, more than doubled in size. Over the past few months Jaycee’s aura has went through a change. It was once a sky blue color, but when she started coming into some of her powers, her aura started getting flecks of red. Right now her aura looked like a deep blue with a purple tinge.
        “What’s wrong?” Jaycee had caught me staring at her.
        “Nothing. I was just watching your aura change colors and get stronger when you made contact with the crystal. I have to say it’s beautiful and pretty darn impressive.”
        “I have to say this has all been pretty damn crazy, but I have to admit I do feel a little bad ass.”
        “That makes three cuss words in the last minute. I think you owe me some money for my jar.” I have been trying to get Jaycee to cut back on swearing, so I made a cuss jar and every time she swears she has to put money in it. I tease, that by the time we graduate, we will be able to pay for our entire beach trip just from that jar.
        “Isn’t that thing full yet?”
        “I’ll