by L.H. Cosway
“It still won’t make you think twice the next time Cristescu tries it on with you though, will it?” he said challengingly.
I remembered Ethan touching me earlier that night and felt a terrible sense of shame. “That’s different. I need to keep him sweet to save Rebecca. You know that.”
“Yeah, maybe.” He didn’t sound happy about it. Was he jealous? “Did you get any more info on your dad?” he went on.
This time it was my turn to take a swig from the whiskey bottle. “Sort of. Ethan said it wasn’t a vampire who made him leave town.”
“And you believe him?”
“He wouldn’t lie to me.”
Finn laughed like I was being naïve. “If it wasn’t vampires, then who was it?”
“I don’t know. It could have been a witch or a warlock. My blood is a powerful magical ingredient. Perhaps someone wanted it for their spells and thought that intimidating my dad would get him to reveal my location.”
“It makes sense I suppose.” Finn grabbed the bottle of whiskey and made a move to stand up. He hissed in pain and sat back down.
I frowned. “Didn’t that doctor give you any painkillers?”
“They haven’t kicked in yet.” He made a second attempt at getting up. I rushed to his side, putting his arm over my shoulder for support.
“Come on, I’ll help you upstairs to your room.”
“Now that I like the sound of.” Finn waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
“Can’t you abstain from being an endless flirt for at least one night? You’re lucky I feel sorry for you for getting shot, otherwise you’d be on your own.”
“Sympathy for a slayer from the vampire sympathiser. Now how’s that for irony.”
“You’re about five seconds away from getting kicked in the gunshot wound, Finn,” I warned and that seemed to shut him up. I helped him upstairs to his room, and he sat on the edge of his bed. “You’ll have to sleep in your clothes tonight,” I said, pulling open the blankets for him.
“Your bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired,” he sighed theatrically as I shook my head and headed for my own room.
The next day Finn insisted I take Wolf with me when I went to visit Nicki. I was about to argue when I realised that I actually didn’t mind him tagging along. I was starting to enjoy the dog’s company, despite his size. He was reassuring, in a large, menacing sort of way.
Both Nicki and Rita lived within relatively easy walking distance of Finn’s house, so I didn’t mind going on foot. When I asked Finn where Wolf’s lead was, he looked at me like I was some sort of advocate of animal cruelty.
“Don’t you dare try to put a lead on Wolf,” Finn said, as though the very idea was insulting. “It’s demeaning and unnecessary. He’ll stick by you.”
Finn was right. Wolf padded alongside me, silent and watchful. When I got to Nicki’s place, I told him to wait outside, and I swear to God he nodded at me. No way, I had to be imagining it. Wolf sat down by the front gate and didn’t budge while I went inside. Did Finn’s dog understand English? It was a little spooky.
Nicki hugged me for a good fifteen minutes before finally allowing me some breathing space. She introduced me to her new girlfriend, Deena, a tall woman with short, naturally blonde hair. We enjoyed a long lunch, and I told her what I’d been up to the last few months. Well, insofar as I could.
When I emerged, Wolf was still sitting by Nicki’s front gate. He shot me a look as if to ask, What took you so long? We started in the direction of Rita’s, and as I neared her house, I sensed thickness in the air. Was that … magic?
Wolf stood by my side as I knocked on the door, growling quietly at Rita’s cats where they sat on her garden wall. They hissed at him before slinking away. Finally, someone came to answer the door, but it wasn’t Rita. Nor was it Alvie or her mother, Noreen.
It was Gabriel.
8.
Gabriel blinked a couple of times in surprise before stepping out onto the doorstep.
“Tegan?” he asked in disbelief.
“Hey,” I grinned. “Is Rita home by any chance?”
“Of course, yes, she’s just out the back with … wait, what are you doing here? I thought you’d left Tribane for good.”
“Finn didn’t tell you that I was back? I’m actually staying at his place.”
Gabriel shook his head. “No, he failed to mention it.”
“Well, here I am,” I said.
“Where are my manners? Please, come in.” He stepped aside, gesturing into the house.
“How’s Marcel?” I asked as he led me down the narrow hallway.
Gabriel’s shoulders stiffened. “Marcel and I have parted ways, I’m afraid. It came down to a difference in opinion.”
I guessed that difference in opinion was down to him taking Theodore’s side back before Rita banished him. “And you’re here in Rita’s house. Does that mean you two are, um …?”
His eyes widened. “Oh, no, we’re not together. Not like that anyway.” He opened the door to the kitchen and led me out to the back garden.
I’d never been in Rita’s garden before. Flowers and other plants filled the area, creeping vines crawling up faded wooden trellises. A mossy pond lay at the end of the garden, surrounded by stone ornaments and potted plants. A tinkling noise came from crystals hanging from strings intertwined through the branches of a tree.
Next to the tree stood Rita. She looked exactly the same as the last time I saw her. Short, choppy dark hair and too much eyeliner crowding her deep brown eyes. In front of her were four individuals lined up in a row. I recognised Alvie as one of them, but the other three were strangers.
All of them held the exact same pose with their arms stretched out and the palms of their hands facing upward. Above each pair of hands, a small grey pebble floated in the air. It was so similar to how the fork hovered in the air above my hand yesterday that I jolted in surprise.
This had to account for the magic I felt in the air as Wolf and I neared the house. They all had their eyes firmly closed, so they didn’t see us yet. Speaking of Wolf, he’d followed us inside and Gabriel cast him a wary glance. “Is that Finn’s dog?”
I smiled. “He’s my new bodyguard.”
“Someone would certainly think twice about attacking you with him around.”
Wolf gave a low huff as though in agreement. My eyes wandered to Rita again when she spoke, “And slowly release.”
They gradually let their hands fall to their sides and the pebbles floated calmly to the ground. Rita opened her eyes, her mouth gaping when she saw me. “Oh shit!” She galloped forward, threw her arms around me, and gripped me in a hug so tight it almost suffocated me. Finally, she let go, her face beaming with a smile. “I knew you’d be back.”
“I couldn’t stay away,” I replied, a warmth filling my chest. It really was good to see her.
Rita ushered me forward to introduce me to her friends. I already knew Alvie. The other three were Melissa, Caitlin, and Jude. To my surprise, I discovered that they were students of Rita and Gabriel’s. They’d banded together to start a small secret magic school for disenfranchised members of the magical families. Melissa and Caitlin belonged to the Ridleys, a family of witches and warlocks after whom Ridley Island was named, while Jude was a Girard, which meant he was related to Marcel in some way.
“Okay, that’s the end of today’s lesson,” Rita said. “I’ll see you all tomorrow bright and early.”
Once the students left, Rita led me back into the house where she made tea for me, Alvie, and Gabriel.
“So, do you want to fill us in on why you’re here? Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled to see you and all, but I’m still a little unclear as to why you’ve come back to a place that’s so dangerous for you.”
I sipped on the tea, pleasantly surprised by the explosion of fresh peppermint. “I came back because Finn asked me for a favour. He needed my help.”
Rita clasped her mug, looking curious. “Oh?”
“I’m not sure I can tell you about it. It’s kind of confidential.”
“Well, at least tell us you’re getting paid for whatever it is you’re helping him with.”
“Yes, I’m getting paid, but, um, I actually wanted to talk to you about something else.” Wolf sat by my feet. I noticed his ears perk up like he wanted to hear if Rita had an explanation for what happened to me at lunch yesterday just as much as I did. Maybe I was imagining things.
Rita eyed me. “What did you want to talk about?”
I took a sip of tea. “Something really odd happened to me yesterday. I was sitting down to eat lunch and when I went to pick up my fork it started to levitate.”
They all stared at me until I started to become self-conscious.
“Are you certain it levitated?” Gabriel asked.
“Yes, I’m certain. Wolf was with me when it happened.” I patted the big dog on the head, and he whined in response, perhaps to inform them that I was telling the truth.
Rita glanced from me to Wolf before she stood, pulling me up by the elbow. “Hey, go easy,” I complained as she positioned me directly in front of her.
“Stand still,” she ordered, placing her hands on either side of my head. She stared deeply into my eyes before closing hers. For a minute, nothing happened, but soon I felt an odd sensation, like a tingling in my brain. After a moment, Rita’s grip loosened and her eyes opened wide and interested.
“You’ve got magic in you,” she breathed. “More than just your mother’s spell. It shouldn’t be possible because your father is human, but somehow you inherited her magic.”
“Why shouldn’t it be possible? You’ve got magic and your mother is human,” I challenged, trying not to think about how she still reminded me of Theodore every time I looked into her eyes. But that would mean that Noreen had sex with Theodore at some point, which I just couldn’t picture.
“Yes, but I’ve spent my whole life practising and building up my stores of magic. You haven’t, and yet it feels like you have just as much magic as I do—like you’ve been a witch all your life, too.”
“That can’t be true. The only time I’ve been around magic was when I’ve been with you, or when I was a baby with my mum.”
“Well, wherever you got it I wouldn’t complain. This is clearly why you made the fork levitate. You’ve got a big luxurious store of magic inside of you, so much magic that it’s started to leak out unintentionally. You were wise to come to me. You need to learn how to contain it.”
Anxiety swarmed in my belly. Having magic felt like a lot of responsibility. “I don’t understand. How can you even see that I have magic?”
“When I used my third eye to sense you,” Rita explained, “I felt three things. The first was your mother’s spell, the second was a large, all-encompassing field of magic spread throughout your blood, and the third was like,” she paused, weighing her words, “it was like a ball of fire in your belly, magical fire. And it’s becoming too much to be contained.”
“So, am I just going to spontaneously combust or something?”
“Not necessarily. Not if you learn how to harness the magic,” she said before glancing at Gabriel. “What do you think?”
Gabriel sat back, blowing air out of his mouth. “I think that we have a lot of hard work ahead of us.”
“Why don’t you and Rita start giving Tegan some magic lessons, the same as what you’ve been doing with your new students,” Alvie suggested. “If she has as much magic as you think she does, then she’ll get through the basics in no time.”
“Good idea,” Gabriel agreed, and Alvie seemed pleased by his approval. I noticed the way he looked at Gabriel and wondered if he had a bit of a crush on the dhampir.
“There’s no time like the present,” Rita added. “How about we start now?” She glanced at me. “I can begin by showing you the simplest way to contain your magic.”
“Okay, I have time.”
Rita motioned for me to follow her into the living room and instructed me to stand with her by the window.
“Look outside and find something small to focus on,” she said.
I looked out, selecting a red rose on a bush by her front gate.
“Have you found something yet?” she went on.
“Yes.”
“Good. Now, I want you to imagine an impenetrable container around the thing you’re looking at.”
In my mind I pictured a clear glass bubble surrounding the rose, imagining that it was so strong nothing could ever break past it. A glass that was impossible to shatter. It was a little difficult to fully visualise the bubble with my eyes still open, so I closed them. Something inside of me hummed in praise, and I sensed my magic waking up.
Rita let out a low curse, and I heard Gabriel and Alvie shuffle up close to the window. Wondering what was going on, I opened my eyes and gasped. The rose was shimmering, making the other flowers look dull by comparison. The shock of it caused me to drop my concentration and the rose returned to its normal colour.
Rita laughed. “Well, that was easy.”
“I’ve never seen a student get that on the first try before,” Gabriel said in amazement.
“I did that?” I whispered.
“Yes, you did it, Tegan,” Rita answered, sounding thoroughly impressed. “Now try it again on something else. Something in this room.”
My eyes locked on the old television set in the corner. Rita followed my gaze and immediately shook her head. “Not the TV. Something that isn’t in danger of blowing up on us.”
I searched for a non-electrical object and settled for a cushion with an intricately embroidered picture of a Persian cat’s face on the front. I closed my eyes, picturing the cushion in my head, and I tried to do the exact same thing I did with the rose.
After about thirty seconds, I asked, “Is it working yet?”
“No,” Rita answered. “You’re overthinking it this time. You need to relax and not anticipate any results, just visualise.”
So, I visualised. It only took a moment before Alvie clapped in glee, and I opened my eyes to find the cushion surrounded by a warm, shimmering, vibrant glow.
“So how do I use this to contain the magic inside of me?”
“The technique is adaptable. Once you become adept at containing different objects, you’ll just need to go through the same pattern to contain your magic. It’s safer to do it with small objects before trying it out on your body, just in case something goes wrong. Magic is both a gift and a curse. If you’re lucky enough to have it, then you need to be responsible and learn how to control it so that you don’t cause unintentional harm.”
“I see.” My worry built because I definitely didn’t want to unintentionally harm anyone.
“This is your homework assignment,” Rita continued. “Practice for a few minutes before you go to bed each night for the next few days, and then we’ll see about moving to the next level.”
“Okay, that I can do.” I glanced at the clock on her mantelpiece. It was already six, and I’d been planning on going to see Ethan early before the club got busy.
“I better get going. But I’ll practice like you told me to, and I’ll come to see you again. It’s been so good seeing you all,” I said, glancing from Gabriel to Alvie and then to Rita.
“It was great seeing you, too. Don’t be a stranger,” Rita said as she walked me out, Wolf trailing behind us. I noticed Finn’s dog casting Rita a wary look, his tail didn’t wag and his head dipped. I put it down to her being a stranger, since he’d acted in a similar way around me at first, too.
As I stepped out onto the street, my mind whirled with the possibilities. Magic. I had the potential to use magic just like Rita and my mother. The thought made me feel closer to her somehow, like my magic was her magic. Like a part of her still lived inside me. I was lost in thought when I noticed Wolf tensing. He gave a low growl right before something hard and solid whacked me on the back of the head. I felt someone’s arms fold tight around me and drag m
e down the pathway just before the darkness enfolded me completely.
***
When I woke up I had an almighty headache. The pain was so intense it caused bile to rise in my stomach. I felt like I had a concussion. I was sitting on cold concrete with my back pressed against a wall. I expected to find myself in some sort of a cell or a basement, but then a cool, fresh breeze drifted over me, and I finally took in my surroundings. I was sitting on Finn’s front porch. A big, wet tongue licked down my cheek, and I turned to see Wolf’s worried brown eyes gazing at me intently.
What the hell had just happened?
A stinging sensation crawled over the inside of my arm, and I glanced down to find a big white bandage secured firmly around it. Oh fuck.
Quickly, I unwrapped the bandage. What I saw made my heart drop to the floor. A nasty red circle marred my skin, like some kind of sadistic nurse had gone to work on me with a wide gauge needle. It was all jagged and rough where the skin had been pierced. They’d … they’d taken some of my—. Oh, God. This was not good.
Whoever knocked me out withdrew an unknown amount of blood, and judging from my dizziness, it wasn’t a small amount.
I looked at Wolf and grimaced. “Some bodyguard you turned out to be.”
He whined like he felt guilty for not being able to protect me. “Don’t feel bad,” I said, giving his fur a ruffle. “Nothing can be done about it now.”
I slotted Finn’s spare key in the door and as I stepped inside I knew I was going to vomit. I dashed up the stairs and made it to the bathroom just in time to close the door and throw up into the toilet bowl. I felt like complete shit, and it didn’t take long for me to empty the entire contents of my stomach.
Wolf appeared beside me and nuzzled my neck. My head was still thumping. I savoured the dog’s heat before I stood, flushed the toilet, and headed for my room. I was almost too weak to pull off my jeans and crawl under the blankets. Wolf hopped up onto the mattress and settled in beside me. I put my arm around his furry neck, and the weakness of blood loss caused me to drift off into a black, dreamless slumber.
