unvamped

by Elizabeth Stevens

  You’re friends with Ashleigh and that crowd... Go and talk to them! Lee thought, feeling a bit confused as to why he knew that with such clarity. The curse, he reasoned.

  As he was about to do something, though he wasn’t quite sure what, Ashleigh smiled and waved at Charles.

  Job done, Lee thought.

  ****

  Thursday afternoon meant there was only one more day before the first week of the school year was over, and Ellie was more than pleased about that. First, though, she had to get through her magic tutoring.

  She scuffed along the pavement, staying well back from Charlie, who walked ahead of her. At times, she thought she saw him turn around to look at her but could never be quite sure. On Tuesday, they almost walked home together because Charlie said he wanted to ask her mum something, but then he remembered he needed to see Mr Coleman for some reason. The day before, Ellie didn’t see Charlie after school, so she walked home alone, only to find him working on his fluctuations with her mum. They seemed to be making progress until Ellie turned up and he’d gone home. Ellie still didn’t know if she felt guilty about that or not.

  Ellie watched Charlie’s back and hoped he wasn’t going to pull into their front gate. She thought he almost paused, and she contemplated going somewhere else, but he kept moving and went into his own gate – well, Arthur and Mary’s gate. Ellie slowed down a little, allowing him to almost get to his front door before she opened her own gate.

  Ellie looked up to see Miriam waiting for her in the doorway, tapping her foot impatiently. Miriam was old and bent – the perfect image of an old crone from a typical fairy tale. Her hair was silver; it couldn’t be called white as it shone with its own luminescence. Her eyes were a piercing sky blue and, when she cast magic, she buzzed with an icy sparkle which Ellie thought was so much more beautiful than her harsh blue.

  “Petronella. How often have I asked you not to be late?” Ellie knew Miriam didn’t actually want her to answer that.

  “I know, Miriam, I’m sorry. I can only walk so fast.”

  “You can walk faster.” She strode inside and Ellie flushed. She hated disappointing Miriam but, at the moment, she hated magic more.

  Ellie opened her mouth to grumble and felt a magical slap across her face. It was nothing too hard, just enough for her to know that Miriam knew. Ellie smiled as she rubbed her cheek. As she went through the door, she couldn’t help but look over at Arthur and Mary’s. Charlie had gone inside. She briefly wondered if he was coming over to work with her mum later.

  “Stop thinking about boys and hurry up!”

  Ellie ran up the stairs, threw her school bag in her room and proceeded up to the attic.

  Ellie was quite a fan of the TV show Charmed, so she knew how clichéd it was to do all your ‘magicking’ up in the attic, but the basement was cold and dirty and nowhere else in the house was as inconspicuous when they had human guests.

  “About time.” Miriam ushered Ellie over to the work desk and pushed her into a chair before sitting on the other side. “This curse, Petronella.”

  “This curse, Miriam,” Ellie replied petulantly. Miriam pursed her lips but made no comment to Ellie’s sass.

  “I hoped to not have to go through this with you. Curses are, strictly speaking, a university subject. However, your…actions…” the way she said it sounded dirty to Ellie, “have forced my hand. I understand Morganna gave you a book on curses?”

  Ellie waited for her to continue, but she didn’t. “Oh, yes. I haven’t looked at it much.” Which was a plain lie. Ellie spent every spare moment with that book, it gave her a lot of information…she just didn’t understand most of it.

  “What has it told you?”

  “That the object of the curse probably deserved it.”

  “Did he?”

  Ellie hesitated, knowing that either a yes or a no would be the wrong answer for different reasons. She knew she had to answer though. “Yes,” she sighed.

  Miriam sniffed. “Why?”

  “Because he tried to kill me.”

  “Did he?”

  “What do you mean? That’s what vampires do.”

  “Do they?”

  Ellie tried not to yell in frustration. The rest of their lesson went in much the same fashion and, by the end of it, Ellie wasn’t sure what – if anything – she actually learned. Or what, if anything, she believed anymore.

  “The book says not to worry if there isn’t a cure,” Ellie said.

  “Don’t all curses have a cure?”

  Ellie’s head jerked up from where it leaned on her hand. “Do they?”

  Miriam opened her mouth to say something when she vanished in a poof of ice-blue smoke. Ellie slumped in her chair for a moment and grumbled. The lesson was obviously over for the day.

  All curses have a cure…

  Ellie wondered where Miriam was going with that. Or, had the old crone merely been parroting what students often thought? Ellie stomped down to the kitchen, trying not to think about it. If she dwelled on it, she’d want to find it so she could get Charlie off her conscience. The answer probably called for her to risk her life again. Well, she didn’t feel much like doing that anytime soon.

  “Ah, good, Pet, you’re done.” Ethel busied herself around the kitchen.

  “Ye-es…” Ellie waited for her mother to continue; that tone of voice usually indicated Ellie needed to do something she didn’t want to do.

  “I need you to take over helping Charles.”

  “What?” Ellie exploded, then calmed herself, remembering she was one of the advocates for helping Charlie in the first place.

  “I can’t, I just don’t have the time at the moment. I think he’s making progress…maybe.” Ethel didn’t look so sure to Ellie. “Anyway, he needs more help and I can’t give it at the moment. Morganna flat out refuses and your father is working so hard these days, so the only one left is you.”

  Ellie sighed, wondering if her life could get any more complicated. Oh, right…last year of school…picking a university for next year…odd boyfriend behaviour…why not add helping an ex-vampire who’d tried to kill her?

  “Bah!” Ellie huffed and Ethel looked at her. “Fine, I’ll do it!”

  “Great, he’s in the living room.”

  “Now?”

  “Yes, please.”

  She walked into the living room and saw Charlie sitting on the floral couch, jiggling his legs.

  He saw her and gave a small awkward smile. “Hi.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “H

  i,” she answered, looking at her mother out of the corner of her eye and hoping that she was receiving the entirety of her displeasure.

  She sat down next to Charles, but on the other couch. They dodged each other’s gaze for a few minutes, although Ellie wondered if she was the only one feeling uncomfortable. Every time she looked at him out the corner of her eye, he was staring at her quite happily. Both of them continued to say nothing until Ellie felt her skin tingling and she felt like she might explode in a shower of blue sparks.

  “How does Mum usually do this?” she blurted out.

  She saw him blink quickly, like he was surprised, then he appeared to get over it. “I do not know, really. Usually, she asks if I have any current fluctuations.”

  “Okay…” Ellie waited for him to continue, but he seemed happy with the little he told her. “So, any fluctuations?”

  “Not at present, no.” His expression looked like he was thinking, so Ellie stayed quiet. “Actually, they normally stop when you are around.”

  Ellie was surprised by this. “On vampire or human?”

  “Human, usually. Very occasionally vampire.” He wore the thinking face again. “Only once or twice on vampire, I think. No, that is not right. It seems like, in public, they stop on human, but here they stop on vampire.” He looked down. “I think.”

  Ellie’s interest rose. Was it a part of the curse that he had
different senses in different places? Was it because she cast it that she had that effect?

  She looked at Charles closely. His head twitched like he felt her gaze, but he still looked at his lap. Something about looking at him made her stomach flutter a little, and she wriggled. His brown hair was wavy and a lot cleaner than her ‘memories’ of human Charles. Strands of it were lighter in the sunlight shining through the window.

  She thought how few people must’ve seen that in his life. She was probably the first person to notice in gods knew how long. His skin was a little blotchy, no more than she’d expect of a guy his age, but the blemishes looked way out of place somehow. His back and shoulders were muscular, but not bulging, which was nice; not like those stupid muscle men on TV. She wondered if he worked out or if his body froze that way when he was turned.

  “How old are you?” She jumped as she realised she’d asked the question out loud.

  He looked up, startled. “What?”

  Now she’d asked, she wanted to know, but she was unsure about continuing. “When were you born?”

  “1321.” As he answered, their eyes locked. It was like he dared her to make judgment, comment, or something.

  “Wow. Even Mum and Dad aren’t that old,” Ellie said before she could stop herself.

  Charles laughed. She looked up at him and smiled. He smiled in return and she had never seen a more sincere smile on anyone before. She shook her head and cleared her throat.

  “Right, fluctuations.” She nodded.

  “Yes.”

  “What are they on?”

  “Well, that is a bit difficult…they seem to be a mixture… Since Ethel altered the glamour to allow me to see through it, it has been a bit hard to tell what is what.”

  “Okay, well what can you see?” Ellie looked around. “What do you see when you look at me?”

  “You as you are meant to be,” Charles answered in a very matter-of-fact tone.

  Ellie faltered slightly, she felt her heart flutter and her stomach squirm. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean you are as you should be; waves of dark blue hair with a slight sparkle to them, as though they hide amazing mysteries. Eyes of liquid sapphire pinpointed by bright blue flecks, so they look like the night sky. And, all around you is an aura of power that I suspect is nothing compared to what you truly wield.” Charlie suddenly looked embarrassed, like he’d realised he’d said something he’d thought about her but had never meant to say to her.

  Ellie had no reply to this for some time. She had never heard herself described in such a way nor ever dreamed of describing herself in such a way. Her hair had always been annoyingly blue, not quite black enough that she always had to hide it behind a glamour. Her eyes had always looked weird to her, like they were mottled and jumbled. She’d never once heard about her aura. People always told her she had power but to hear it was almost a physical thing was strange. It made her feel more sure of herself. She almost ventured to think it made her feel more powerful as a person, not just as a witch. Thoughts like that made her laugh at herself.

  “I, um Thank you…” Ellie answered when her brain could think fractionally straighter.

  “No need. It is merely the truth. There is one thing I regret about humans – regretted – it is that they do not come like witches do. Witches have always had a little something special.” He smiled as though he was remembering something. Ellie just hoped he wasn’t remembering feeding from a witch. She also wondered if he realised he sounded a little pompous.

  “Do you want to practise controlling your fluctuations?” Ellie asked.

  “All right.”

  Ellie was still a bit unnerved by his apparent calm and confidence. Although, she supposed she’d be fairly confident if she was about seven hundred years old, too.

  “How do you and Mum usually do that?”

  “It varies. What we have found most promising is…” he stopped talking, looked at Ellie, then continued, “is, um, if I hold her hands and she allows me to borrow a little power to help me. She does not send it to me, it is up to me to take it. That way, I am in control.”

  Ellie wasn’t sure about the handholding, but she figured it couldn’t be too bad. “Okay, so…sit on the floor, I’ll face you and we’ll get started.”

  They moved to the floor and she tentatively reached out to him. She felt as though he could sense her hesitation. He simply put his hands up and she slowly put hers into them. At the slightest touch, she felt a warmth spread out from her fingertips through her whole body, she could sense the same was happening to him – although she didn’t know how – but, most amazingly, red and blue sparks showered out from where they touched.

  Ellie was surprised when she didn’t immediately pull her hands away, and was just as surprised that Charlie didn’t either. He smiled at her, and she had a moment of doubt that he’d experienced the same thing she had. Upon looking into his velvety green eyes, she saw that his expression hid his true feelings. Though, what those feelings were exactly, Ellie wasn’t sure.

  Once the initial shock of their contact passed, Ellie found she could look at him without feeling like she was going to burst into a million butterflies and float away. Like such a silly thing would ever happen anyway. It was then she remembered she was a witch and she probably could burst into a million butterflies. She also remembered, with a spasm of guilt, that she wasn’t some single girl with the luxury of flirting – despite how accidentally – with a nice-looking boy who just happened to almost kill her a few months previously.

  “Um, practice then,” she said, trying not to notice how smooth his hands were in hers, or how she felt their hands fit together quite nicely.

  “Right, yes,” he answered.

  She watched as he closed his eyes. His face screwed up a little as he concentrated and she felt his… Well, his essence was the best way she could describe it, as he tugged a little on her power. She struggled not to just open her power up entirely and let it flow through to him. After a few moments, a bead of sweat trickled down her spine.

  “Almost got it…” Charlie grunted, his eyes closed tight. “I was in human mode, it seems. Now, I hear more, smell more. You smell like flowers; roses and lavender, gardenias and…something else, something sweet…” she saw his nose wiggle.

  “Oh, my goddess, now you’re holding his damned hand!” Ellie’s hands pulled free of Charlie’s as she turned around to face Morganna.

  Before she could reply, a harsh voice floated in from the kitchen. “Morganna Cooper, you leave your sister alone! She’s doing me a favour!”

  “Oh well, if she’s doing you a favour, it’s okay that she’s holding hands with the guy who tried to kill her!” Morganna stomped off to the kitchen, her voice rising with every word.

  Ellie heard her mother yell some very unsavoury things and decided she didn’t want to hear anymore.

  “Do you want to go for a walk?” she asked Charlie.

  He looked at his watch. “I would love to, but I told Mary I would get the washing up done before she got home. I am still having a bit of trouble with the amount of detergent to use.” His cheeks coloured slightly, and Ellie again found herself basking in the idea that she was probably the first person to notice in…well over seven hundred years.

  “Okay, no worries. I’ll see you at school tomorrow. Practice again after?”

  “Sure. Bye Ethel,” he called, but didn’t seem to feel the need to wait for a reply.

  “Oh, look, now you’ve made him leave!” Ellie’s mum shouted to Morganna in the kitchen.

  “Here, I’ll see you out.” Ellie smiled in apology.

  Charlie’s answering smile seemed to say ‘no problem’, although Ellie doubted he would have said those words.

  At the door, there was some awkwardness, to say the least. Both of them stood there for a few moments, twitching their hands as though waiting to see if the other one would finish their twitch. Finally, Ellie put her hand out. Un
fortunately, Charles took it and kissed it just as Ellie went to shake his hand and she ended up smacking him in the face.

  “Oof…” Charles took a step back.

  “Oh, my goddess, I’m so sorry.” Ellie took a step forward.

  “No…not a problem…” Charles put his hand to the already slightly bruised cheek. “I have just not had a lady hit me in the face for a very long time.” He smiled at her and bowed like he was taking off a pretend hat. “Until tomorrow, Pet.”

  “Bye, Charlie.” She waited on the doorstop until he was through his own door – after a long jumble of keys – finally closing the door and wandering up to her room in a bit of a daze.

  Ellie found herself thinking about that first touch a lot that night, she even dreamed about it, over and over in a variety of situations. Her favourite – if she let herself admit she enjoyed any of them – was the one where they were at an old-fashioned ball.

  The hall had looked like it belonged in a medieval castle, and shone icy blue. Smokey dragons curled through the air to operatic notes. Fancily dressed couples twirled around the dance floor as servants in half-masks passed food and wine around.

  She wore a magnificent gown of purple that set her blue hair sparkling. She had a silver and purple clip in her hair in the shape of a small bat. Her hands reached up and felt it flutter warmly under her fingers. She looked around, feeling a faint breeze play across her bare shoulders.

  She saw the dancers part and Charlie walked through them towards her. He wore a black velvet jacket, embroidered with gold at the cuffs, the collar and the pockets. He strode purposefully past all the young women who were obviously, eagerly trying to get his attention – waving their lace fans in their faces and batting their eyelashes at him. However, Charlie only had eyes for Ellie. He stared right at her, his green eyes bored into her and she felt like he saw right into her very soul. His hair fell to his shoulders and he looked dashing with a moustache and goatee.

  When he stood in front of her, she smelled leather and some tempting musky scent. He held his hand out to her and she gently put hers into it. Warmth flowed through her and sparks flew, literally. He smiled warmly at her and bowed. She could vaguely see the points of his fangs, but they didn’t bother her now.