by Shay Cabe
“What do you want?”
“Where’s Teddy?” I demand, pushing a little on the door.
“He’s in bed with a cold,” he says trying to shut the door on me. Barrett steps forward and puts a restraining hand on the door and it stops dead. Abraham pushes on it several times but it won’t budge.
“I want to see him, now.”
Abraham studies me and then the guys behind me with a sigh he opens the door and I walk past him towards the stairs.
“Which room is his?”
“First door on the right.” Without another word I climb the stairs two at a time and fling open the indicated door.
Teddy is laying on the bed with a group of people surrounding him. The magic that’s building in the room makes me nauseous and unable to step further in. Phoenix and Oz have no problem gently moving me out of the way and walking straight towards them. Phoenix breaks the spell into pieces with his presence.
The group of people turn towards us with shouts of anger and thrown magic. I block most of it and the other two Hazard boys slip around me to stand ahead of me in a united front.
Secure in the fact I know they can watch my back I move towards the bed to see Teddy. He’s ashen looking and his lips are a pale blue. If it weren’t for the shallow breaths, I can see him taking, I’d think he was dead. What are they doing to him?
“Teddy?” I call, touching my hand to his clammy forehead. His eyes open and I can see the residual magic slither around his pupils like oil. The reality of what they’re trying to do hits me. “Jesus christ you’re trying to turn him into a witch-born.” Raising my hands I use a spell I never thought I’d use but memorized just the same. The magic will take everything I have, potentially knocking me out but it should keep him from being turned.
Under my breath I say the words, pushing against the magic that still has ahold of him. When it begins to fight in earnest I push harder and when warm fur brushes my arm I know Cookie stands with me feeding me more energy.
With a sound that resembles a snapping rubber band the spell breaks and I fall to my knees. Teddy’s color immediately starts to return, and he looks at me with confusion in his eyes.
“You’ll be all right now, but you’re coming to stay with us,” I whisper, fighting the black edging my vision. The only reason I was able to use the spell is because instead of having him bitten they were trying to use tainted blood in a spell to change him.
I turn to the people who were supposed to love him and his brother who is standing in the doorway. “You turned witches and they’ve gone dark… you created monsters that will one day turn on you.” I swallow the vomit that threatens to come out. Bitten who’ve gone insane, crave the flesh of witches and cannot be controlled for any length of time. One day their Frankenstein monsters will come and eat them.
I look at the woman who I assume is his mother. She’s standing the closest to Abraham and has the same dark hair and pale green eyes. “You’re a shitty mom and you will pay for it. But I won’t let you make Teddy suffer with you.”
“He’s coming for you girl, he tasted your mother's flesh and now he wants yours,” she says with a smile of pure malice on her face. She waves her hand and I don’t have enough juice left to stop her. They all disappear except for Teddy.
I already know who she’s talking about and if I hadn’t Teddy clarified it for me.
The psycho bear.
Maggie is pretty chill about us bringing Teddy to the house, especially after I tell her what's going on. After fussing over him for a few hours she put him to sleep and is now holed up in her library looking for a way to break the oath because she says we need to know what he knows. Especially, about the bear bitten.
He’s potentially the one stalking me except this time he brought friends.
I’m sitting outside, surrounding by Hazard boys who are watching me with mixed emotions. All of which contain concern.
Witches age slowly once we hit adulthood. We don’t live for hundreds of years looking youthful—naturally, anyhow—but we can pass for twenty until we’re fifty. Or in this case a teenager. I still think whoever this guy is, is hiding in plain sight at the school.
He could be anyone.
I know his eyes but only the ones I saw as he transformed into that horrible mash up of bear and man. His face was animalistic, so that's a no go too but I know he had blonde hair and if I saw his eyes unmasked by magic, I’d know him. Another thing that can be easily hidden with a spell. I have no idea how to fight this guy now. If it isn’t Teddy, and it isn’t his brother that leaves hundreds of potential people it could be.
I remember his smell—burnt meat and oranges—but that’s yet another thing that magic can hide, unless I fully change.
I yawn and cross my arms. I passed out right after Teddy’s family used a transportation spell, and I know that Phoenix held me the entire time I slept. I woke up with my face smooshed against his chest. Just as I know they brought Teddy here and treated him like a friend. Something I genuinely appreciate.
There’s one thing we can do, however. I know they say the quickest way to kill a snake is to cut the head off but you can also do damage by cutting off its tail too.
“We’re going to find his pack and take them out one at a time. If they’ve not chewed on a witch yet, I’ll try to free them of the dark magic but if they have…” I leave it unsaid, there’s only one way to take care of a bitten then.
“We spoke with Don, at least as much as he was willing to listen to. He’s going to start training us tomorrow,” Hez says, resting his hand on my knee. I let him, touch is reassuring to them, it’s why they’re all touching me in one way or another.
“Mom is having a defensive team come in and do up the wards. Even he won’t be able to get through them. Bitten do not have the same immunities that we do, no matter who’s giving him magic to use,” Phoenix says his eyes on me.
“I need to send him a message,” I say staring into the woods.
“What’s that?” Oz asks, his foot pushing against mine gently.
I smile and look at them all. Time to open the piggy bank.
Chapter Nineteen
two days later…
With a smile of satisfaction on my face I look at the billboard at the edge of town. It’s one that can be seen from the school and used to have an advertisement for the ice cream parlor on it. Now it has one sentence.
It’s bear season, love Nora.
It's not the wittiest of statements but it’ll get the point across. Oz comes up and slings his arm around my shoulder. Pressing me against his side he absently kisses the side of my head. The touching thing is something they’ve been sneaking in any chance they can. I’m getting used to it because honestly, I like it.
Not that I’ll tell them that, yet.
Last night when I couldn’t sleep the five of us sat around a fire outside and talked, like in depth about everything kinda talk. We hashed it all out. I told them everything that happened the day mom died; I told them about the pain, and the dreams, about all the moving. I told them what I think my dad’s part was in all of it.
I avoid talking about the tattoo. It’s still warm so they see me without sleeves quite often and every one of them has taken a turn studying it. So far none of them asked a lot about it. I’m betting that’s a talk we’ll have in the future. I’m not quite sure how I’ll explain the dream, or what was happening in the dream. I try not to think about it too awful much. Probably because I’m not ready to face it yet. Totally not sure when I will be.
“We missed the dance,” he says offhandedly.
“Yeah, I know.” I don’t think it's a big deal, although I was looking forward to the chocolate.
“You don’t seem disappointed.”
“I imagine you four would’ve had more fun than me, ya know getting chased around by your groupies.”
He makes a face and flicks my ear. I bump the back of his knee and he catches himself on my shoulder.
“Anyone wanna
go swimming?” Hez calls, holding the door of the jeep open. The last two days we’ve all been taking turns driving my car, it’s amusing. Maggie has decided to pull us out of school—temporarily—against my wishes. I want to find the bitten, but she wants me safe. I was overruled and slightly blackmailed.
She threatened to make me join a sport. She insists it's more important for the boys to focus on their training and for the five of us to work on our relationship. Whatever it may be. She’s right and I hate it, mostly. Okay, kinda. All right, I don’t actually hate it but I’m annoyed that I’m being coerced into working on it.
I’m more of a do it when I’m done being stubborn kinda girl.
I let Oz steer me towards the jeep and tuck me in the back seat with Barrett and Phoenix. I can’t help but laugh as he turns up the radio that’s playing one of the new songs by Taylor—yeah that one—and manages to sing every single word of it. Halfway to the house I’m laughing continuously as all four of them belt out the words, in harmony even. While I secretly sing them under my breath.
When we stop in, Maggie gives us a cooler stuffed full of food and a few blankets, informing us we’re taking the day off from all activities, including training. Oz packs a second cooler full of drinks and at some point everyone agrees to camp out for the night. With a very stern warning from Maggie to ‘be good’, we all know what she means by that. Packing up all the supplies into Maggie’s SUV and the jeep goes easy, arguing over who gets the only empty seat in the jeep with me stalls us.
Teddy joined at some point, trunks on, an overnight bag packed. Without a word he climbs in the passenger side of my jeep and looks smugly at the arguing Hazard boys. When they see who took their contested prize, all four of them shut up and stare at him.
“What? I’m her best bitch, I get the seat,” he says blithely. I laugh so hard I snort. His color has come back, and he’s mostly back to the Teddy I know and love but there are shadows in his eyes that weren’t there before. He doesn’t talk about what they did to him and we still haven’t broken the oath but the fear he had is fading.
It bothered me seeing him so afraid.
Grumbling the others climb into the SUV and follow close behind us. We blast the radio and sing our hearts out with the guys echoing the same song behind us. This is what it feels like to have friends and do something that doesn’t involve forty ways to silently stab someone or who’s the bad guy guessing game.
Pulling the hair tie out of my long, blonde hair I let it blow all around me, knowing it’ll be a bitch to brush later and not caring. This is a taste of freedom I have never experienced. The freedom of youth that makes me want to experience it again, with all of them.
We get to the beach which is on the other side of the lake from the cliff I threw them off and immediately start to set up camp. No one wants to put tents up in the dark. It was decided early on that Teddy will room with me and the other four will take the larger tent.
Making the fire pit is easy, a little bit of magic and voila. After we swim for a bit and the guys have a competition on who can dive the deepest, we go hunting for firewood, the old-fashioned way. Waste of magic to keep a fire burning when there was plenty of dead trees littering the woods behind us. The sun is starting to set, and I’d like to get this finished so I can watch it over the lake, it’s a beautiful sight.
“Teddy, do you think that I should cut my hair? I’ve kinda always wanted to but I’m—” I realize how quiet it is behind me. I turn and there’s no Teddy. A chill of apprehension runs down my spine. Why isn’t Teddy behind me? He was there three-seconds ago, chattering about his hair. Hence, me talking about mine.
“Teddy?” I call out softly. Then I smell it. Meat that’s sat on the grill too long with a hint of oranges wafts towards me. I turn towards the source and instantly put the small saw I’m carrying up defensively in front of me. Anything can be a weapon.
“Hello, witchling,” says a voice that I only hear in my nightmares. His body is wreathed in magical shadows that are moving and twisting around him, but those eyes of his… brown with threads of red in them are boring into me.
He’s holding Teddy with his arm around his throat but so loosely I’m confused on why Teddy hasn’t wiggled free. Teddy’s eyes meet mine and he looks completely zonked out and then I see it, the bite mark on his shoulder. Oh, no. Please, no.
“You still hold back your beast, witchling. It’s making you weak,” he taunts, turning Teddy to keep him in between us when I take a step forward. That tells me two things. One, he’s not as brave as he’s making himself out to be. Two, his identity is super important enough to hide. Three, he isn’t the same guy from before in the woods. This isn’t my stalker.
Well, shit.
“You don’t know anything about me,” I say calmly, taking another step forward.
“I know everything about you, girl.” For some reason my saying that didn’t make him happy.
“Really? If that was the case, you’d know that when I get ahold of you—no matter how long it takes—I’ll kill you.” I’m not making the threat lightly, I will kill him.
“I’m too powerful for you to kill; instead, you’ll join me.”
I scoff, “I’m not real excited about hanging out with a guy who smells like the butcher shop and peeks in children’s windows.” His anger is instant and fills the small path with menace.
“I am not a pervert!” he roars.
“Hey, dude, I didn’t say pervert you got to that conclusion on your own.” As I talk, I take small steps forward, edging towards his right side. Because I’m a dumbass and was too relaxed and forgot to bring any weapons with me to find wood. They’re all sitting back at camp, with the guys who have no idea what’s going on.
Wrong again.
“This belong to you?” Phoenix says, dragging a woman into the clearing. No, not a woman, it’s one of the bitch-faces. He brings her around to stand beside me but keeps his hand on her head in restraint.
“Let her go!” the psycho bear yells.
“Na, I think I’ll make a small rug out of her. Man, you should've picked a different animal for her… do you realize you turned a deer?” Phoenix asks, toeing her a little.
“She is mine!” Psycho bear roars.
“I’ll make you a deal, you let Mr. Sunshine go and you can have your girlfriend,” Phoenix pokes me with his finger and I flick my eyes quickly down and back up. He’s got a knife tucked in his sleeve, I manage to slip it into my own hand without the bear seeing me; he’s too occupied with the girl.
Phoenix is now my hero of the day.
“He’s bitten, I doubt he’ll even survive it,” psycho bear says and pushes Teddy forward. Reflexively, I step forward to catch him and when the bear grabs my arm and pulls me up against him I realize the stupidity of what I did.
This was his plan all along.
The feeling of his body pressing up against my back makes me want to throw up and stab him in the face at the same time. I’ll settle for stabbing him in the face.
The decision I’m going to make will hurt him more than stabbing him in the face. And will probably haunt me for a long time.
“Phoenix, you know what I have to do,” I say, slowly flipping the blade in my hand that’s hanging at my side.
There’s only one solution left for Tiffany or whatever her name is and it's sad that this girl is going to lose her life because she was seduced by the need for power and potentially her obsession with one of the boys—something I’ll never let them blame themselves for, but now I truly see her, uncloaked from whatever spell hid her being bitten from me. The insanity lurking in her eyes is very real and tells me all I need to know.
She’s eaten flesh. There’s no going back now, no cure in existence can save her.
Oz steps out of the shadows and picks up Teddy. He gives a sad look to the girl but then his gaze hardens when it falls on the man holding me. Hez and Barrett are nowhere to be seen but I feel them, close, super close.
“How long h
as she been changed,” I ask softly.
“Months ago she bargained herself to me so she could sniff after one of those delinquents of yours. Not that I’d let her, ultimately.” The honest answer surprises me. When he continues, “Out of the four women I’ve bitten she’s the only one to survive.” The only reason I can think of him caring about her being female twists my stomach.
He wants to breed them, that’s why he gives a shit at all.
“You idiot,” I say to her. “You’re nothing more than a womb to him and giving birth to his offspring will kill you.”
“He promised me they’d love me!” she yells. Speaking for the first time.
“You can’t make someone love you, no magic can. Now your life is over.” I turn and fling the knife as hard as I can at the girl. Her mouth falls open in shock as she stares at me with her one good eye. The other has a knife buried to the hilt in it.
There’s no reason that the guys should have to do this, not when I’m here and am completely accepting of it.
She falls over bonelessly and the bitten holding me yells in rage. I take the chance to slip from his grasp and turn, grabbing his face with one hand. I want to see his face. I want to know my enemy. Chanting, I force my magic to beat against his. From somewhere, strength pours into me and then I realize it’s the guys. They’re using the bond.
When the magic hiding him from me breaks, I release him and take several steps back in horror.
“Dad?” I whisper with tears choking my voice. He roars and shoves at me, and in my stupefied state I fall backwards. I don’t even try to catch myself.
“There’s so much more! She took from me… you were never mine!” he yells pacing back and forth in front of me. “You will be the vessel!” He steps towards me and I twist my hips, flipping to a crouch.
“You killed mom!” I say it quietly but with so much rage in my voice my magic makes the ground shake.
“She was weak, in flesh… weak. There was a cuckoo in my house!” With that he turns and flat out runs. The guys pursue but I know they won’t catch him. I’ve been deceived my entire life. I could feel his power now, feel the other power intertwined with his. The evil filling him full of its cancerous poison. The absolute madness that has already consumed him. How the hell did he pretend to be normal for so long? How was I so fooled?
