Spellbound

by Samantha Combs

“Hey, I almost forgot. Eden still wants your mom and Jade to come over for dinner. And you better prepare yourself for this one, Logan. There are a ton of people over here now. I mean, counting me and Elizabeth and Tabitha, and then you already know about Eden and Prudence, there’s Cordelia and Finola, who were here before. Then there’s Aisling and Echo, they’re identical twins, can you believe that. And I cannot tell them apart at all. Then there’s, um, Libby, and Rochelle and, oh, um, what’s her name? Oh, Raven. Is that everyone? Wait, let me think.” I mentally counted all the witches in my head. “Oh, I forgot. Eve. That covers everyone I think.”

  “Jeez, you weren’t kidding about being prepared. Where are all those people sleeping anyway? They do sleep, right?”

  “Yes they sleep. They’re witches, not vampires. Come on, Logan,” I snapped.

  “Sorry. It is getting weird around here. So, where are you putting them all?”

  “Oh, I didn’t tell you that part yet. Our house sort of morphed.”

  “Morphed? What the heck does the mean?”

  I wished I could take a photograph of his face.

  “It means that now we have nine bedrooms instead of five.”

  “Serious?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s insane. Eden should consider a career in real estate.

  She could make a fortune.”

  “I’ll mention it to her.” I said dryly. I could hear him chuckling. Suddenly, I picked up Elizabeth calling me in my head.

  Time to get back to my lessons. Reluctantly, I had to say goodnight to Logan.

  “Hey, Logan, I have to go now.”

  “Okay. I’m glad you called. And I’m glad things are going well over there. I’ll talk to my mom about coming over for dinner. I know she wants to, too.”

  I brightened at the idea of another evening with Logan. “I want to, too Logan.”

  “Goodnight, sweet Serena.”

  “Goodnight, Logan. Dream of me.”

  “I always do.” He rang off then and I missed him immediately.

  ****

  The next day at school passed uneventfully. I found myself grateful for the normalness of the day. The morning drifted into the afternoon without so much as a hiccup or a speed bump and soon the last bell of the day sounded and everyone headed out to the parking lot, either to the buses or their cars. Logan, Jade, Tabitha and I hurried to Logan’s car and sped out of the parking lot before anyone could delay us. Jade happened to be especially excited because today she began her first day of real training. Lately, happy constituted her norm. And I had reason to be both excited and nervous because tonight Logan’s mother, Lily, would come for dinner. We had waved to each other and spoken over the phone, but tonight would be my first official introduction to her. I knew she had witch abilities like my mother and because she was Logan’s mom, she would be prominent in my life, and I in hers.

  Tonight would be an important meeting. I wanted it to be perfect.

  We got home and parted ways, knowing we would be with each other soon. Tabitha and I went inside and immediately were put to work getting ready for the dinner. Elizabeth had stayed home again. I began to wonder if she would ever return to the school. She could, though, if she wanted. She had only ‘charmed’

  the principal, telling him that a family emergency had kept her away from her student teaching duties. Her small spell worked, and he didn’t question anything she told him. Good thing, too. It seemed that she always had something to do at the house. Today she had to ready our large dining room to hold seventeen people for dinner. It equaled a monumental task and Tabitha had been commissioned to help. I had been excused once again to work on my witch training. Today, I had astral projection. Eve would be my teacher.

  “Close your eyes and envision the place you want to be,”

  Eve instructed. She had a beautiful French accent and I loved to listen to her speak. With her flawless chocolate-‐‑colored skin and long, thick dreadlocks she kept partially covered in colorful scarves, I thought she might be from West Africa. “It’s a matter of harnessing your positive energy and focusing it to project yourself.” Eve closed her own eyes and breathed deep. I watched with fascination as her body seemed to dissolve into specks of color and light, fading until nothing remained where she had been standing a second before.

  “Over here, young ward.” Her voice called to me far to my right and I whipped around. I didn’t see anything…at first. Then I spotted it, a small dusting in the air, like particles you can pick at in a strip of sunlight coming through a window. The tiny dust specks swirled and danced and then became more solid. I watched as the outline of Eve began to form and fill in, first the bones of her skeleton, then her vital organs, her veins and corpuscles, the blood that flowed. I sat fascinated as her skin folded over her muscles and tendons. Then her clothing reappeared stitch by stitch. By the time her projection finished, I am sure my mouth fell wide open.

  “I went slow for you, Serena, to show you how it happens.

  Now, watch me when it is done right.” She snapped her fingers and just like that she was across the room. It happened so fast, that had I blinked, I would have missed it. She smiled warmly and strode over to me.

  “Now, we work on you.”

  We worked together for the next couple of hours. By the end of our time together, Eve had taught me the basics of astral projection and I had tested it a couple of times and had success. I projected myself into the dining room and almost gave Elizabeth a heart attack, which gave Tabitha great joy. I practiced it a few more times by myself but I gave myself a nosebleed, so Eve said that we had done enough for tonight. I had to get ready for our dinner anyway.

  ****

  Lily, Jade and Logan arrived right on time. I ran downstairs to answer the door, but Tabitha beat me to it. She hugged Logan’s mom by the time I got there. Since she had spent the night there the evening of the dance, she got to know her so well. I felt jealous. It seemed like she had a head start on me. Logan stepped forward to make the introductions.

  “Mom, this is Serena. Serena, this is my Mom, Lily.”

  Logan’s mom reached her hand out and I took it. She immediately covered my hand with her other one and drew me in for an embrace. She smelled like vanilla and gardenias. From her touch a rush of memories came to me; cookies baking in the oven, snowboarding with Jade and Logan when they were little, a tidal wave of love for her husband, searing pain over losing him, and a welling up of pride for Jade and Logan. We glanced at each other and I realized she had been receiving the same kind of memories about my life. In that instant, I understood one thing clearly: we both loved Logan and would do anything to protect him from harm. She nodded at me in our mutual, unspoken agreement and I understood why Logan loved his mom so much. I could envision how easily I would as well.

  “Hello, Mrs. Daniels. It’s so nice to finally meet you.”

  “Please, Serena. Call me Lily.”

  Elizabeth and Eden came up behind us then and Logan and I made introductions all around. Tabitha and Jade ran off to her room, whispering secretively. We took Lily into the back den to introduce her to the rest of Eden’s coven-‐‑sisters. As I suspected, it took awhile. I still couldn’t get over how many of them were in our house.

  Dinner became a fun, noisy affair. Everyone talked at once, plates, glasses and platters clanged and banged and no one seemed to mind. The wine flowed a little too freely, and the food was delicious. Eden, Elizabeth, Prudence and Finola had done most of the cooking, with Cordelia pitching in with a fantastic dessert. We all ate too much and everyone declared it better than any restaurant could ever serve up. With so many hands helping, clean up was a snap. Actually, with so many witches helping, clean up was a dream. Dirtied plates and glasses disappeared, casserole dishes marched in the air single file from the dining room into the kitchen, utensils rolled themselves up in the cloth napkins, congregated in the center of the tablecloth, then the tablecloth itself arose by the four corners and folded in on itself, then i
t, too, floated out of the dining room and into the kitchen.

  Following clean up, everyone except for Jade and Tabitha drifted into the den with tea or cups of coffee. Time for the serious talking to begin. Eden took the lead.

  “Lily, thank you for joining us and bringing your lovely family to Elizabeth and Serena’s home. I know I speak for everyone here when I say we have so enjoyed meeting you, finally.”

  “Thank you so much for inviting us. Jade talks nonstop about Tabitha and I suppose we all know how Logan feels about Serena.” Murmurs of agreement rose from the group. Yes, yes, they did know. “And now, having met her myself, I can appreciate why he feels so strong about her.” She patted Logan’s knee and I watched, surprised, as Logan blushed.

  “We feel the same way, Lily. That’s what makes what we are going to share with you tonight so much more critical. I’m going to guess that you are aware of the recent changes in the Council?”

  “Yes, I am. I made a conscious decision to live my life without witchcraft because of the current Council. I’m aware that they have become far too powerful for my taste and far too involved in the personal lives of witches. I know they tried to involve themselves in mine and I turned my back on them, forced to renounce my witchhood because I wanted to marry Logan and Jade’s father. I loved him more than I loved my powers, so I did it without a moment’s hesitation.” Lily gazed at Logan again and said, “And I would do it again, in a heartbeat, if I knew I would have you and your sister. Having my life with you two and your father is the definition of the best decision I ever made.” She squeezed Logan’s knee again and spoke to Eden. “I haven’t kept up with the more recent changes. I don’t even know who is claiming leadership of the Council now.”

  “I do.” Logan spoke up. “I think his name is Christophe.” He met Eden’s eyes. “He’s the one from the warehouse.” An audible gasp from the group filled the dining room.

  “We are aware of Christophe, Logan. I was not aware he was the one you battled.”

  “Battled?” Lily raised an eyebrow at her son. “Logan, did you forget to tell me something?” She sounded concerned, but it impressed me how she managed to keep her cool. Logan must get his composure from her. He always seemed so unflappable to me.

  Aha. Another piece of the Logan puzzle fell into place.

  “I didn’t want to worry you, Mom. Besides, I handled it.”

  Logan said, with just a hint of pride.

  “And he will again.” This came from Prudence. I remembered her as the clairvoyant. She had been silent during the evening, but she had been watching the previous exchange with great interest. Everyone in the room listened to her. “I foresee another great battle in his future. He will prevail, but there will be a great loss to him.”

  Cordelia leaned forward and spoke to Prudence.

  “Is there anything more, Pru? Can you foretell the setting?

  Or who is there with him or who he is battling?”

  Prudence remained silent for a moment or two and the room held its collective breath. Finally she spoke. “I envision a dark area outside, heavily wooded, thick with trees.” She paused and seemed to strain, as if to picture something beyond all of us. She blinked, once, then twice, and then shook her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t have anything else. It must not be happening soon or the vision would be much clearer to me. But I do know it will be out of doors.” She pointed outside the double French doors. “Isn’t there a forest just beyond the back yard here?”

  “Yes, there is.” Elizabeth spoke up. “When we first moved in, Tabitha and I went hiking back there. It’s exactly as Prudence described it, thick with trees, quite beautiful during the daytime, in fact. But I can imagine how it would be at night. It could be a foreboding place.”

  Lily spoke then.

  “Do you know why the Council is interested in Logan and Serena?”

  Interestingly, Finola fielded this one.

  “We do, actually. And at first, we thought it was only Serena with whom they had interest. But your recent revelations have turned that theory upside down. And then Logan himself proved he not only had powers, but he could bloody well use them too.” I hadn’t before noticed her English accent, but it was quite pronounced now. “So we had to rethink our program. When we realized why Christophe wanted Serena, it made sense to us. When we found out about Logan, it made perfect sense to us. Christophe is trying to make the most powerful witch ever created. And he wants to use Serena to do it.” She paused, as if she wasn’t sure everyone would be ready for the next part. I could see Eden silently nodding at her to go on.

  “At first we were afraid he wanted to use his own seed,” I almost gagged when she said that part, “and that may still be his plan. But since he made his move at the warehouse, we have to work on the assumption that he is aware of Logan’s lineage and his gene pool potential. Now, instead of using a diluted gene of Serena’s, even as powerful as it is, he may be working on the theory of using the genes from two equally gifted donors.” She glared at Logan when she said that. He just seemed startled. I realized that he hadn’t put it all together till now. I peeked over at Lily and found just the opposite. She understood everything that Finola told her. And she came across as a little stunned.

  “You mean he’s trying to create some kind of super-‐‑witch?”

  “Actually,” began Eden, “we think he wants to start with Serena and Logan and create a race of super-‐‑witches that would fall under his control. He isn’t happy with just taking over the existing witchdom; he wants to create his own. He is truly the embodiment of everything evil. It’s been coming for some time. He has been monitoring Serena for the past ten years, biding his time and grooming her for this. He made a mistake, though. He couldn’t have known about you, Lily.”

  “If he’s so powerful, is there any way to stop him?” Lily wanted to know.

  “Yes. We believe so. We want to take over the Council.

  Before we can do any of that, however, we need to protect all of you, twenty four hours a day.”

  “How do you propose to do that? Logan and Jade go to school. We can’t be expected to change our lives for this. I made a decision long ago to run and hide and it cost me my husband. I don’t ever want to do that again.”

  “Mom!” The anguish in Logan’s voice tore me in half. I could sense in Lily’s eyes that it did the same thing to her. She must not have told her son her suspicions, that as we knew the Council played a part in my parents’ demise, so did she believe they were responsible for his father’s accident as well. She reached over and hugged Logan.

  “I couldn’t tell you, son, not until I made sure. Now, tonight, hearing all of this, I just know it. The Council has always been evil and I fell out of favor when I turned my back on the only way of life I thought I knew.”

  Just like my mom, I thought.

  Lily focused back on Eden.

  “How do you propose to protect my children, and Serena, Elizabeth and Tabitha?” She asked the question regarding all five of us as a mother would.

  This time Raven stepped forward. I almost got dizzy. There were so many of them.

  “I traveled with several more friends than you know about.”

  She twisted to the side and whistled. All of a sudden, four beautiful dogs padded into the room. They were Labrador, German shepherd mix, not puppies, but not full adults either. They sniffed around and went immediately to Raven’s feet. They didn’t bark or jump, just whimpered a little and obediently lay down in a row right on the floor. Raven leaned down and spoke gently to two of them and they got up and trotted over to Logan and me. I reached down to pet the one nearest me and she glanced up at me with sweet brown eyes and that did it. For the second time in this little town, I fell in love. She nuzzled me with her cold nose to pet her and I laughed and gave her what she wanted, stroking the short, spiky fur around her nose and down her strong, muscular back. I peeked over at Logan and found him bonding with the dog near him as well.

  “What’
s her name, Raven?” I asked.

  “She doesn’t have one yet. In fact, none of them do. Logan, you and Serena will name your protectors as you see fit. And make no mistake, as loveable as they seem, they are trained to protect you to the death.”

  I gazed into the gentle, sweet face of my new constant companion and couldn’t imagine her doing anything more vicious than ripping apart a sock. But I had no reason to doubt Raven either. Elizabeth had gone to collect Tabitha and Jade and they were delighted with their new additions. In minutes our den floor became a mass of rolling bodies and four-‐‑legged friends. The girls had each named their dogs immediately. Jade named hers Sage and Tabitha came up with River. Everyone thought they were terrific names. And, despite the fact that all the dogs were female, Logan had named his Charlie. I had a hard time coming up with the perfect name for my charmer. Loveable and endearing, sure, but I wanted her to have a name worthy of her if it came time for battle. I petted her absentmindedly when it came to me. I would name her Zena, after the warrior princess.

  “How do you like that, precious?” I asked her, stroking her soft fur. “Zena, my little warrior. Will that work?” In response, Zena reached up and gave me wet, slobbery kiss on my face. It seemed like it would work. She wagged her tail like mad. We all took our dogs out back for a run and made them big thick steaks to welcome them to the family. I had my suspicions they would earn their keep.

  While the dogs were finishing their special meal and getting acquainted with everyone and their surroundings, Logan had a question.

  “Raven, why are they all female? Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” He hastened to add, eyeing the room full of women.

  “Because the relationship of a female dog and her master has the same dynamic of a mother and a child. And a mother will stop at nothing to protect her young. In my opinion, a female dog is a superior protector to a male dog for that reason alone.”

  Murmurs of approval rose up all around and, as if to cement their understanding of their role, all four dogs began to wag their tails and lick the hands of their new charges.