by Emma Mills
I bit my lip and sighed. I wanted to explain, but how could I excuse basically giving in to the ease and power rush of using black magic?
‘The first time I had no choice. I was surrounded and there were flying stakes, flamethrowers and shotguns being fired at me simultaneously,’ I whispered, looking at the floor.
‘And once you’ve used it and felt it’s power it’s hard to stop when you’re in the middle of a situation,’ Susannah said quietly.
I nodded.
‘They killed my friends. We weren’t harming anyone. Sebastian had even instilled strict laws… but they just wanted us dead. They didn’t care… so…’
‘So you thought they deserved it?’ My aunt asked, her voice deadly quiet.
I closed my eyes, feeling a single bloody tear well up in the corner of my eye.
‘Leave her alone, Mom. Apart from anything I can’t cope with blood tears right now,’ Saffy said, in her usual cool manner.
Aunt Sarah sighed.
‘The point is, if we can avoid being discovered we want to. When you go out make sure you wear your vampire contact lenses. We are all hiding our green eyes for the time being. Bringing you here could work for us or against us. Currently witches are on a level with demons in America, but for some reason I cannot understand vampires are gods!’
‘What?’ Brittany and I exclaimed in unison.
‘Haven’t you seen the news?’ Susannah asked.
‘Yes, of course, we have seen all about the witch hunts spreading across the nation but heard no mention of the vampire thing,’ I said.
Sarah frowned.
‘They must be editing it out. The British news won’t want its people to think that Americans are accepting the idea of vampires.’
‘But I don’t understand. Surely Pierre would show it? And it must be on the internet,’ Brittany said.
‘Maybe Pierre doesn’t want the UK vampires to know in case they all decide to up and migrate to safer lands,’ I said.
‘And the Chinese government totally controls what its people can see on the internet, so I bet the UK government are doing the same without anyone realising,’ Noah added.
‘So are vampires allowed to hunt?’ I asked quietly, wondering if my aunt would finally give me her blessing to feed, instead of merely turning a blind eye.
‘New York City, LA, San Francisco and Las Vegas have all declared themselves safe havens for vampires… as long as they get a written declaration from the human donor,’ Noah said.
‘What? So we go around with contracts for them to sign?’ I asked.
‘Basically, yes.’
‘What about other cities? What about…’
‘Boston? Here?’ he finished, with a raised eyebrow.
I shrugged.
‘More and more cities are following suit every day. Obviously state legislation will take longer, but I think if you’re careful…’
‘Noah!’ My aunt admonished. ‘You can’t know that. Jessica, you know my thoughts on… how you feed… but I know you don’t harm anyone.’
‘Of course I don’t,’ I interjected.
‘But I would still proceed with a lot of caution until at least Boston declares its alliance.’
I nodded.
‘But that wouldn’t make you stay up all night waiting for us,’ I said.
My aunt looked at Susannah and she shrugged, her eyes worried.
‘Oh, for goodness sake,’ Saffy exclaimed suddenly. ‘We are protecting a witch and she’s sharing your bedroom.’
Both my Aunt Sarah and Susannah turned and glared at Saffy. Brittany and I exchanged glances and shrugged.
‘So?’ I asked.
‘It’s someone you know… and potentially you will disagree with our actions, but I warn both of you that if you break my confidence over this and go against my wishes you will be cast out!’ my aunt said, her voice shaking slightly.
‘We would never…’ Brittany began
‘Why would we turn her in? God, I can hardly talk, with the state of my aura. Whatever she’s done… is she one of your dark witch… Oh God! Is it Carrigan?’ I asked, thinking of the dark witch priestess who had tried to abduct me before I even knew Susannah was my cousin.
Susannah shook her head, her eyes dark. She didn’t like being reminded of her past rebelliousness.
‘It’s me they’re hiding.’ The soft voice came from the hallway door and we all swivelled towards it.
‘Brooke!’ Brittany and I exclaimed, leaping out of our seats and rushing to her.
Chapter Twenty-One
‘Is this why you’ve barely called us?’ I asked, turning and glaring at Susannah.
She shrugged.
‘You know I don’t like lying, Jess, and every time I did call you kept on about how you had to find Brooke. We couldn’t let the Council find out she’s here.’
I looked at my aunt.
‘I don’t understand. Brooke has the ability to save us all. With one little jump she could warn the Council about Pierre and none of this needed to have happened.’
I swivelled back to face Brooke.
‘You’re so bloody selfish! Leo has been out of his mind with worry so we went to find you as soon as the news broke. We both nearly died when a gang of Pierre’s vamps turned up to grab you.’
‘What? Is he okay?’ Brooke asked.
I nodded.
‘Yes, but all this time he has been worrying about you and wondering why the hell you won’t help us out. You’re the only one with the power to time jump.’
‘Don’t I know it!’ Brooke exclaimed bitterly.
‘Oh, poor Brooke!’ Brittany interrupted. ‘You always think life has been so hard on you. Well, you know what, I was in that school for years! I saved your ass in there and almost died. My best friend did die and now you are refusing to help by doing one little spell… It’s ridiculous, and you know what, if you lot think it’s the right thing to do to protect her then fine, but I’m not staying. Jess, are you coming?’
I looked at Brittany. I knew she had mixed feelings about Brooke, the witch she had met in a secret school, and I totally agreed with everything she said.
‘Brittany’s right. You’re not the only one that’s had it tough. I totally get that you don’t like the Council bossing you about, but I am… was… stuck between the Council’s rules and Sebastian’s rules.’ I paused and bit my lip. I still couldn’t believe he was gone.
Brittany took a step closer and squeezed my arm.
‘Girls,’ Aunt Sarah began, ‘the reason we didn’t tell you is because we knew this was how you would react and, to tell you the truth, when Brooke arrived six hours after the New Year news I felt the same. When Saffy and Susannah arrived home from your house and saw her, well, Saffy was halfway up into the ley lines and I had to give chase to stop her. All I ask is that you listen to Brooke’s story. If, in the morning, you feel the same we will have a family discussion, so until then can I trust you not to turn her in?’
I looked at Brittany and she gave an imperceptible nod.
‘Okay,’ I said.
‘Good, now go upstairs and listen to what she has to tell you. We are going to bed,’ Aunt Sarah said.
‘Thank you,’ Brooke whispered, when we dragged our exhausted bodies up the two flights of stairs into the attic bedroom I always shared with Brittany. Now there was an extra bed set up in the corner, under the eaves.
‘Now what’s so important that you managed to get Aunt Sarah, Susannah and even Saffy to agree to you staying here when you could basically save the world?’ I asked.
‘It’s a long story, but it starts two years ago when Veronica, my mentor, died. Up until then she had kept me in the dark and when I was first sent to live with her I just thought she didn’t want me there. She seemed almost disappointed they’d found me and she was so strict.’
‘We know the story, Brooke. You’ve whined about her enough times. Your mad old lady mentor, living out in the sticks and never letting you use your pow
ers… We get it,’ Brittany interrupted with a sigh.
‘Carry on,’ I said, digging Brittany in the ribs.
Brooke bit her lip.
‘It was true. Right up until the end she never let me time-jump on my own. In the last few years she let me accompany her on Council jobs, but she always insisted I stay hidden from view and she was the one who always did the actioning. In the last year I could tell she was getting really sick and frail. I begged to take the jobs from her but she refused. There were only two jobs. Generally the Council only use us for emergencies.’
I rolled my eyes.
‘Anyway, after the last one she phased back into the lounge and collapsed. I managed to get her upstairs to her bedroom. She told me she didn’t have long and she fell asleep.’
A tear slid down Brooke’s cheek and Brittany scowled.
‘You hated her! You said she was always trying to break you and Leo up! This is so hypocritical!’ Brittany exclaimed.
‘I know it seems that way but I didn’t know then what I know now. In the morning she seemed better, more lucid. She drank a cup of coffee and then out of the blue she asked me how old I thought she was. It was a really strange question and I didn’t know what to say. I mean I had always thought she was in her early seventies, but then in that last year she had aged so much and as I looked at her I realised she was probably nearer eighty, so I said seventy-eight. That was when things changed forever because, you see, she was only thirty nine.’
‘What? Don’t be ridiculous! You believed her? I only saw her that once but she was definitely in her seventies,’ I said.
‘Of course I didn’t believe her, but she was dying and I didn’t want to upset her so I held her hand and smiled. After a bit she told me to fetch a box out of her chest of drawers. She told me to open it and look inside. It was this one,’ Brooke said, handing me a wooden box engraved with a delicate pattern of intertwining flowers.
‘Open it,’ she prompted.
Inside was a collection of papers, a passport and a few photos. The photos were presumably of her as a child with her family. They were in full colour, the little girl wearing jeans and a pink velour hoody. I frowned and unrolled the papers. Brittany peered over my shoulder and we gasped as we looked at the birth certificate. It read ‘Veronica Grace Cassidy’, born on the seventeenth of July, 1981.
‘It could be fake,’ Brittany said quietly.
‘There’s a British passport too,’ I said, pulling it out and confirming the details.
‘What did you do?’ I asked Brooke.
At first I was cross and then I was confused. I couldn’t understand why she didn’t warn me earlier but I only had a day with her because she died thirty hours later. In that time we talked… a lot. She told me she was sorry they had found me, but that she had come to realise that what we did was an important responsibility. She said it was worth it and it was a sacrifice worth making.’
‘But if it’s the time-jumping that ages you, why don’t you look much different? You said yourself that in the last few years she would take you along?’ Brittany asked.
‘She does look a bit older than you, actually,’ I said quietly, inspecting Brooke’s face and noticing things I hadn’t seen before.
‘Veronica didn’t know exactly; no-one had told her. It was just what she had worked out for herself. She thought she had done approximately fifteen jumps that had impacted. Fifteen jumps adding about fifty years to her life, so that’s…’
‘Wow, here’s her witch’s licence. It says she passed when she was fourteen, but you’re not allowed to take the exams until you’re sixteen…’ Brittany interrupted, reading another piece of paper.
‘She said she was only discovered when she was fourteen. Her mentor was already dying so they rushed her training. She said only one witch is born with the power to time-jump when another dies, so the Council are always desperate to find the next one… but it could be any young witch.’
‘So she wasn’t told anything? Didn’t the Council tell you all this when they found you?’ I asked.
Brooke shook her head.
‘So, anyway, Veronica had it sussed. She had been working it out over the years. The Council only ever sent her on a job once, very occasionally twice a year…’
‘So they must know what it does?’ I said.
‘Of course they do,’ Brooke said. ‘They know it kills us but they don’t care.’
‘You still haven’t explained why you haven’t aged… much?’ Brittany said.
My mouth twitched.
‘Who was harder to convince, Saffy or Brittany?’ I asked.
Brooke smiled.
‘I’m not sure… yet. So I have aged, but think about it, when you’re in your late teens there’s not much physiological aging that’s noticeable. An eighteen year old can easily look fifteen if she wears her hair in a ponytail, doesn’t wear make-up and wears a school uniform. Veronica worked out that if you time travelled but you didn’t change anything, if you just observed like she made me do, it wouldn’t take its toll. It was only when you changed something in time that time would take its payment. So whenever I travelled with Veronica she took the hit. When I travelled in the school, before I met her, it would have only been the last two times when I actually changed anything. The other times I didn’t do anything… I didn’t even know what was going on, so when my body did take the hit I was unaware of the consequences. I still dressed and acted like a sixteen year old, so things didn’t change much.’
I frowned, taking it all in.
‘But you stayed working for the Council for more than a year after Veronica died. Why did you wait until last year to refuse to work for them?’ I asked.
‘Like I said, they only send us out when things get really bad, and I wanted to test Veronica’s theory for myself, so I waited until the Council sent me on a job. It took a year before they called me up. A vampire club in Las Vegas had been secretly filmed and broadcast over the internet. It went viral within minutes. I was sent back two days to warn the US Council so they could intercept the filming and wipe the poor guy’s memory. I put an orange in my pocket and the second I landed back in my room the orange exploded into a mess of slimy pulp and mould spores. There was also this.’ Brooke came closer and held back her dark blond hair from her face. It was shot through with silvery strands, showing more at her temples and a few more near her forehead.
‘Oh!’ Brittany mouthed.
‘I should be twenty-five like you but my body is now probably about thirty-five.’
‘What would happen if she was turned into a vampire?’ I whispered.
Both girls snapped their heads round and stared at me.
‘Jess!’ Brittany exclaimed. ‘Firstly whichever vampire did the actual making part would be executed… so don’t go thinking about it, and secondly Brooke herself would be executed, so that won’t work. You were only allowed to live because neither you nor Daniel knew you had witch blood.
‘But the Council are desperate for her so maybe they’d think it was a good idea?’ I said. ‘An eternal, non-ageing time-jumper!’
‘No, I’d be dead and more to the point, I don’t want to offend you or anything but I’d rather not be turned into a blood-sucker,’ Brooke said, a smile creeping across her face.
‘So, okay, I get why you left and all, but what’s another three years? Why can’t you just do this one job?’ Brittany said.
‘Because it wouldn’t be just this one job,’ Brooke said. ‘Pretty much every job they ever sent Veronica on was to clear up a disclosure breach. There are always crazy vampires who want to rule the world.’
I frowned.
‘But I thought the last time something like this happened was a hundred years ago?’ I asked.
Brooke shook her head. That was before the Council realised that every fifty years or so a witch was born with the ability to go back in time. Since then they’ve always had us.’
‘But they can’t force you. You could say that you’ll do
this one job, but then no more. We’ll stand by you,’ I said.
Brooke shook her head.
‘So what’s the difference? If I clear up this mess, it will just happen again so we might as well just get on with it and, to be honest, I don’t think the Council would allow me to go back to New Year’s Eve now anyway. There’s a forty-eight hour rule.’
‘Why?’ I said, already working out that even if Brooke could be persuaded to go back and save Sebastian it would be illegal. It was more than forty-eight hours.
‘Because with every day that passes more events occur. People are born, people die, babies are made and lost. It’s the butterfly effect. In the weeks since New Year’s so much has already happened; all of that would be lost if I changed something as huge as Pierre’s announcement.’
I sighed.
‘What about Exodus?’ Brittany said. ‘You could go back and save them all by warning Sebastian. The Council wouldn’t even need to know.’
Brooke bit her lip.
‘I’ll think about it,’ she whispered, as we turned the lights off. ‘But if you save one lot of people another lot has to die. If I went back and saved Sebastian, Troy and the others, Death would take from somewhere else. Then the blood would be on my hands.’
‘No, it’s okay. I understand,’ I said, turning away.
‘What I don’t understand,’ Brittany said, ‘is why you are keeping Leo in the dark. Why haven’t you told him any of this? You two have been together for ten years and he said you had gone cold over the last year, but he doesn’t have a clue, does he?’
‘Leo is none of your business,’ Brooke said quietly, her words cutting through the darkness. ‘What do you know about relationships? You haven’t had one last more than six months.’
‘Hey!’ I exclaimed on Brittany’s behalf. ‘Look, we don’t know either you or Leo all that well, though we’ve got to see more of Leo since you moved back to Scotland and started avoiding everyone, but he seemed really cut up about you when I was at your cottage at New Year.’
Brooke sighed.
‘You’re right, it’s not our business, and you’re entitled to fall out of love. I mean you met him when you were fifteen and people change,’ I said. ‘But maybe he deserves to be told the truth about your feelings, if not about the reason you want to stop time-jumping.’
