by Sara Stone
"Oh, uh, of course." I stepped back, opening the door to let him in. I didn't want to close the door on the tall guy, but he didn't move or saying anything. I felt rude, but Aldon assured me it was okay. Thoughts of Brad and any gesture he didn't make disappeared from my thoughts.
"Do you mind covering those windows before we chat? I am a little sensitive to the sun this morning," he said, fanning his face a little.
His face was turning a bit pink, and his eyes were a little hollower than before. I went over and covered the windows with the shades. I turned on the lights and sat across from him, shocked at his visit. He had said he was here before, but I didn't expect him to show up. I wasn't really in the mood to try to remember everything Judson said about him. Tiptoeing around someone in your own home was too exhausting after everything I had already been going through.
"Let me get right to it. After our little chat, I addressed my lieutenants about their sires showing up here without my approval. I don't know if you know anything about us, but we are sticklers for rules." I nodded as he raised his eyebrows in question.
"If I had gone to bed, then I wouldn't be looking so haggard. It seems that when I was attacked, they had something powerful on their side." He mumbled it more to himself than to me.
"You were attacked?" I asked in shock. Who would be crazy enough to do that?
"Not so much attacked as I was challenged, and they did not follow the rules. I have had to oust one of my children and all their sires. We are vampires, some believe we are soulless with nothing to lose, but they are dabbling in black arts, which isn't condoned."
He was holding scary, intense eye contact. I was having a hard time taking in all he was saying. I didn't read up on all the vampire rules, but I was sure he shouldn't be out in the sun and cutting ties with his sires was a big deal.
"Should I need to call a healer for your injuries?" I asked.
"No, no. I am fine. They'll heal." He waved it off as if this were a daily occurrence for him.
"I'm sorry if I am not understanding, but why would they need black magic?"
"They were old enough to have their strength and manipulation, so it's not fully necessary. When I had a hard time healing, I knew what was going on, as you are seeing. I would not usually tell anyone of these things, but I trust you as I trusted your grandmother. My connection to them was barely a whisper. I could still tell them to spill their secrets, but they could fight the compulsion to do so. That should not be possible."
"Were?" I asked.
"They were a danger to those of us that require living in the shadows. They openly attacked you. If anyone had seen, my area and ruling would be in question. Most of them were taken out. I came to tell you that, along with my ex-lieutenant, a few of them got away." He appeared indifferent to talking about slaughtering rogue vampires. It was hard to remember he was one himself, being eloquent and not stark raving mad.
"I was hoping we would have more of an idea who could be doing this. Nothing has turned up, and whoever is doing this has now started attacking my friends. At least the ones I still have anyway." Judson and Ulric flashed through my mind.
"I didn't come empty-handed, my dear." He pulled a small item from his pocket wrapped in a handkerchief. Seriously no one uses those anymore, and this guy had two on him.
He set a tiny brown leather pouch carefully on the table and unwrapped it without touching anything but the handkerchief's soft cotton. It seemed harmless sitting there on the coffee table.
"What is that?" I asked, leaning forward to get a closer look at it.
"It's referred to as a pocket curse as it usually sits in one's pocket. It happened to be on one of my men." His solemn demeanor told me that the man was no longer with the living or undead. I don't know what a vampire would be considered in that sense, but he was ashes.
"What kind of curse was that?"
"I'm not quite sure. It can be changed by the caster, you see. He was a dear friend of mine. I had known him for most of my exceptionally long life. The curse turned him against me," he said, shaking his head slightly, "Had I known this, I wouldn't have gone to the extent that I did."
"I'm sorry for your loss." And I was. Losing loved ones was never easy. Then a thought hit me.
"Would it be easy to put this curse on someone without them noticing?" I asked, hoping I wasn't offending him. He had just killed his friend because of it. I assumed he killed him; maybe when you are the leader, so to speak, you didn't get your hands dirty unless necessary.
"Absolutely. It's hidden from the eye of the person it is on, as well as anyone around them. They would never be able to find it without knowing to look for it, at least until the curse is successful, leaving the body a barren husk. Why do you ask?" He tilted his head to the side.
I sat there trying to take all the information in. Were my friends being cursed? It wasn't out of the realm of possibilities. Vampires had attacked us, I was burned by a knife, witches were dying, so this wasn't a giant leap to that conclusion. Judson had been leery of this man, though. I didn't know who else to talk to about it, so I said it anyway.
"I think maybe those around me are being manipulated," I said, waving my hand at the little uninteresting yet scary bag. The thought of someone being able to put this on Judson, Ulric, and possibly Hattie was scary. Who was able to get that close to them? So unassuming that no one paid attention to it.
"You will need to protect yourself before trying to remove this curse or be cursed yourself," he warned.
"How do I do that?"
I was sure I would need to find a spell, but I didn't want to take the chance of hurting myself or anyone else. I gulped down my fear as I thought about taking this all on by myself. Could this curse cause all their weird behavior? I needed to find more information on what kind it was. Getting them off everyone was my only option. That was the result. I had no idea what I was doing, so it would be easy to overcome me, with everyone I held close cursed. That had to be the reasoning behind it.
"I haven't the faintest idea. I was able to just pull it off him with gloves, but then again, he was dead, well dead in a permanent way, when I did that," he said, rubbing his hand across his chin as he thought.
"Whoever planned this must know that without them, I would have no one to help me figure it out," I said, covering my face with my hands. I had no one to ask. For all I knew, Rose, the coven, and anyone else I would try to get help from could be carrying one of those little pouches around.
"I wish I could be of more help," he said as he stood up, "but I must be going. There will be a lot to do after last night's events."
"I appreciate you coming by and letting me know." I stood up with him and walked him to the door.
"All is not lost, my dear," he said, patting my hand that I held out to him. When I had met him before, he had been flirting with me. Today not so much. Whatever was messing with the witches was starting to affect the vampires. Their truce was necessary for both sides and normals as well. It was so weird to think of regular humans without myself included.
I leaned against the door, staring at the coffee table. He had left the little pouch, and I half expected it to grow legs and chase me. I held my amulet in my hand against my chest, hoping I had done all the magic right. I went about opening the windows and turning off the lights. I gave the table a wide berth as I did. I didn't want to touch the table because it was touching the pouch. I didn't even want to deal with it, but it was here, and I had no choice.
I went to the kitchen and pulled out the thickest oven mitts I owned and a pair of long tongs. I searched the cupboards for a jar with a lid I could effectively close once I got it in there. I sat on the couch staring at it. The last thing I wanted this thing to do would be to attach itself to me. I couldn't just leave it, but I really despised the idea of picking it up.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I put on the mitts, picked up the tongs, and gently scooped it off the table into the waiting jar. The little pouch trembled on the tong
s as my hands shook. I fought with the mitts to tighten the lid once I dropped it in. I walked up the stairs to the witchy room with the jar held out in front of me like a ticking time bomb. Even in the jar with the lid, I was afraid to touch it. Aldon seemed unaffected, touching it with a handkerchief, but I didn't want to take that chance.
Salting the circle, I set it inside to protect myself from it and to keep it locked, so to speak, inside it until I found a spell to help my friends. I couldn't call anyone. The grimoire sat open as I contemplated what I would need to do. Whatever it was, I had to tread carefully. I didn't want it to backfire and hurt someone, but I couldn't let them stay like that either.
I pulled out my phone and called Rose. At least I could see if she were upset with me too. She didn't answer, and I didn't leave a message. I didn't want to give her any information if she had a little baggie of hate on her.
With my phone out, I decided it would be a brilliant idea to text Judson. I had never asked Ronan for his phone number. After the issue he had with Brad, I didn't want to work with him, but I didn't really have any choice in the matter.
Hey, I need Ronan's phone number, please. I hit send and the read message popped up underneath with no response. He wasn't going to answer me. I had to keep reminding myself that it might not be him acting like this. I hoped that was the reason anyway. If they all just didn't like me, and I was searching for the little bags for nothing, ...well, I just didn't want to think about that until I had to. I tried to come up with an excuse that would give mad Judson a reason to help me without directly putting any information out there.
It's not for me. Hattie wants it. I sent the message banking on the fact that once they were cursed, they didn't gang up together. It was a slight possibility that they did, but then again, the curse could be there to isolate me, so it was probably made to isolate them as well. I stopped for a second to be impressed with my deduction. Maybe I was cut out for all this after all. At least I was hoping I wasn't entirely off the mark.
I got the read message again before the number popped up on the screen. Oh, Thank Heavens! I had no idea what I was going to do if that had backfired. It was the first thing that had gone right in two days at least.
I called Ronan and asked that he come over to inspect the window. That something was wrong with it, so he would have no reason to avoid me. He said he would be over shortly. I couldn't judge by his voice if I should be prepared for a fight with him or not. I went back and forth with myself on whether I was making a mistake bringing this up to anyone else. What if he was cursed already? Do they share information with whoever did it? I had no way of knowing if they were being controlled other than acting out of character.
All the questions bounced in my head as I mentally tried to prepare myself to hear nasty things come from Ronan. It wouldn't bother me as much as it had with the rest of them, but I was getting tired of hearing my worst thoughts spoken out loud by my friends. Ronan knocked on the door a few times before I opened it. I psyched myself up to talk to him, and then my nerves got the better of me. When I opened the door, he seemed irritated. Great. I had messed up.
"Hey Ronan, thanks for coming. I don't know what happened, but the window is broken." I stepped aside and waved him in. Instead of him walking upstairs to check out the window, he just glared at me.
I stood there staring at him, unsure of what to say. He wasn't acting as he had before by any means. He didn't really know me, so he couldn't upset me like Judson or Hattie.
"Would you like to see it?" I asked, waving my arm towards the stairs. I knew I was coming off weird, but what else was I supposed to say?
"Lia, there is nothing wrong with your window." He growled it out, and I stepped back. Oh shit! He very much outmuscled me. I could run for it, but there was no way I would get a door shut between us in time.
"Okay, so I lied about the window," I said, shrugging a bit, giving him a forced smile. He wasn't really showing me that I could trust him, and I wouldn't say anything until I was positive I could.
"I already knew that. So why am I here?" he asked, crossing his arms across his chest.
"Um...uh...How are you feeling?" I was vibrating with energy leaning my weight from one foot to the other. The nerves had my heart racing, and he was reading my body language loud and clear.
"What kind of question is that?" his eyebrows knitted together as he glared at me.
I was stuck. I didn't want to give him any information that he could use against me, but I didn't know how to figure out if he was cursed or not. I hadn't known him long enough to really get a handle on how he acted without the curse.
"You're acting strange, and I don't like it. Are you the reason everyone has gone bat shit crazy?" He took a huge imposing step towards me, backing me into the wall.
"Can I trust you?" I whispered. It slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it. I needed someone in my corner to help me out. My friends would be lost to the curse if I didn't.
"What? What are you talking about?" he asked, his eyebrows rising almost to his hairline. I had caught him off guard, causing him to back off.
"I think my friends have been cursed," I said, looking at the floor. I knew how crazy it sounded. Part of me didn't want it to be true. The task of being the one to save them seemed impossible. Yet on the other hand, if they weren't, I didn't have any friends. Either way, I needed to find out.
"Cursed?" he asked, skeptically.
"Yes, Judson went off on me, Ulric doesn't want to help me, and Hattie was her normal self then went to work and came back all upset." He continued to stare at me. I realized none of that sounded like someone had been cursed.
"Aldon came over and had a little pouch thing he claims to be a curse that once on you can't see," I continued. I had diarrhea of the mouth. So much for keeping things to myself.
"You let Aldon Goroff, the vampire leader, into your house? You invited him into your wards?" he asked in a growl.
"Um, yeah, I did." I pursed my lips and shrugged. I looked at it as a step closer to finding answers, but the look on his face told me he didn't think so.
"We will discuss that later. Where is the cursed pouch?"
I led him up the stairs into the room and pointed to the circle. He turned to look at me with his eyebrows raised. I couldn't tell if that meant he was impressed with me putting it into a salt circle or thinking I was nuts for the overreact. He walked the circle a few times, squatting down to get a better look before turning to me.
"So, say I believe you, what do you need from me?" he asked.
"To help me, so I don't fail epically or blow one of my friends up with a spell." He smiled as if I was joking.
"I have a history of messing things up," I said shyly as I played with the hem of my shirt.
"What does your book of spells say?" he asked. I was still wondering why he was asking me all the questions. Had I messed up?
"I don't even know what I am looking for."
I walked over to the book and sat down. I started searching for curses. I didn't know the name of it, but that was at least the place to start. He came over and read over my shoulder as I flipped past curses that didn't match. Finally, after flipping frantically, I came up with nothing. I slammed the book down and sat there, wondering how to find the solution when I didn't even know what it is.
I was in over my head. Nothing in the spell book had anything close. I wanted to call Rose over to help, but how many people did we ask for help before it became a liability.
Ronan agreed that we needed help when he accepted I was not the one causing the curse, and I accepted he wasn't at the mercy of one. We were just grasping at straws while someone might know the answer. We didn't have time to sit around and wonder. I was simply happy he believed me. If I were doing this alone, I would be getting nowhere quick, so I called in Rose to help.
Rose's face paled as she approached the circle. She knew what she was looking at. I had begged her to be here quickly. She wasn't sure what it was about but ca
me anyway, thankfully. The fact that she hadn't yelled at me or turned me away told me she wasn't cursed, at least not yet. It seemed anyone was in danger of getting hurt.
"That's bad juju; where did it come from?" she hissed.
"She let Aldon Goroff into her house," Ronan said, his dislike of Aldon clear in his voice. He was still stuck on that little tidbit.
"Why on earth would you do that?" she murmured, taken aback.
"He came over?" I threw it out there as more of a question than a statement. She clutched her chest for a moment before turning her attention back to the jar.
"What kind of curse is it?" I asked. I didn't think she heard me because it took her a minute to respond.
"I think it's a night stone curse. I can't be sure until I can see what's in it." It was like she couldn't take her eyes off it.
"Is there something we can do to fix it?" I tried to calm my heart. I wanted it to be simple, but I knew logically there was no way it would be, as nothing had been thus far. That tiny piece of me hoping wouldn't hear it.
"Generally, no, once it's on the person, you can't undo it without the witch who created it," She gulped before continuing, "Or the curse is deactivated when the person it was on passes."
It felt like I hit a wall. If anyone knew what they were talking about, it was her. I couldn't save my friends if I couldn't figure out who was creating them. I was nowhere near knowing who was doing this. They were not only attacking witches but now vampires. Who could be strong enough or stupid enough to pull that off?
"Those aren't the options. We have to get it off them," Ronan said. He seemed steadfast in his resolve to help. I wish I could muster that kind of confidence.
"There's no way someone with this on them will allow it to be taken, even if they don't know it's there. It's part of the curse," Rose said gently.
"Aldon said the one this was on has passed," I said quietly. I didn't want to say dead. It seemed crude. I hadn't been prepared for the only options to be so grim. I didn't want to talk about the deceased when our friends could be facing the same fate.
