Werewolf Magic & Mayhem (Book Two, Magic & Mayhem Series)

by Wilkinson, Stella

  I fished him some treats out of the drawer and put them next to him. I supposed I should be glad I didn’t have to find food for Fletch as well, but holy hemlock, I was missing him.

  I was quiet at school the next day. I just wanted to get through it. I was dreading visiting the empty human version of Fletch and terrified I might run into his family, but I had to do it. I’d asked my dad at breakfast, explaining that I had a sick friend at the hospital and would he mind if I went there after school. I was half hoping he’d forbid me to go, but instead he offered to pick me up from there on his way back from work. So it didn’t look like I had a choice now.

  Normally I would have taken a bus across town to the hospital, but I needed time alone to think and so I walked all the way.

  I stopped at reception to check if Fletch was still in the same place, and was told that his family had moved him to a private room. I nearly bolted back out the doors. How would I manage to see him without seeing them? I supposed I should see them. Fletch would want to know if I had; it might put his mind at rest if I could tell him they were all fine.

  I got lost twice trying to find my way, but eventually I was standing outside his door. There was no window in it, so I couldn’t see if he was alone. After a few minutes of dithering about what to do and trying to hear through the wood, I eventually plucked up my courage and opened the door before I totally lost the nerve.

  Fletch was lying still, his eyes closed, exactly the same as before. His ruffled brown hair, his handsome face – I felt myself sigh at the sight of him. I was so happy to see him, it took me a few seconds to register the woman in the room. She was sat at the bedside holding Fletch’s hand.

  For a moment I felt my stomach clench; her blond hair was pulled back in a clip and she looked so elegant. But then she turned round. She was older than I’d thought; her eyes were ringed with lack of sleep, but they were also bright green. I knew instantly that she must be Fletch’s mother.

  “Oh, er, I’m so sorry. I’ll come back another time.” I began to back out of the room, but she jumped up.

  “Emily? Are you Emily?” She sounded kind of desperate, so I stopped and nodded cautiously.

  “Oh, I’m so pleased to see you. We were going to call at your house tonight. We really need to talk to you.”

  I almost swayed with horror. They were going to come to my house? My dad would have had a fit if he’d found everything out like that. Thank goodness I’d come to the hospital tonight – what a near-miss!

  She pulled me into the room and shut the door. “Will you wait here whilst I fetch my husband?”

  I must have looked like I might bolt, because she got a bit tearful. “Please,” she begged, “could you just stay with him until I get back?”

  I felt a lump in my throat. I didn’t want her to feel any more pain than she was obviously already feeling, but I didn’t want to face an inquisition from both his parents.

  But more than anything I wanted to stay with Fletch, so I said, “Okay, I’ll wait with him.”

  She gave me a last unsure look, and I sat down in her empty chair to show I really did intend to stay; and so she quickly left before I could change my mind.

  I stared at Fletch, memorising his features. I touched his soft hair and held his hand.

  “I know you’re not in there,” I said softly, “but I want you to know that I’ve written your spell. I was going to read it to you, but your parents might be back any minute. Anyway, I’ll be doing it for real on Saturday night, so fingers crossed that we can put you right.” A tear rolled down my cheek and plopped onto his hand. I jerked back; I could have sworn his fingers tightened slightly around mine. But that just wasn’t possible, was it?

  The real Fletch was somewhere in the woods; his body was just an empty shell right now. I decided I must have imagined it.

  His mother was back at super speed, I was sure she thought I would run away. Puffing behind her, holding two paper cups of coffee, was a man. Again I knew straight away he was related to Fletch. His hair was that same gorgeous rich brown, though much shorter.

  His eyes went down to my hand still clutching Fletch’s, and I dropped it like a hot potato.

  He put the coffee cups down on the bedside, then pulled up two more chairs from against the wall, and motioned me to sit back down.

  “Thank you very much for coming, Emily. I’m David Fletcher, and this is my wife, Marion.”

  I gave them a small smile. “Emily Rand,” I said, acknowledging their introduction.

  I looked at their earnest faces and realised I was in big trouble. They were going to ask me questions, and I just didn’t feel able to lie. But I couldn’t tell them the truth either. I forced myself to stay calm. I hadn’t done anything wrong, not really; I would just have to be careful.

  “Can you tell us what happened on Saturday? The hospital have been pretty vague, and we feel sure something must have caused this.” His father’s eyes bored into mine. I looked at the floor.

  “Fletch, uh, I mean Aaron, came into the shop where I work on Saturdays, and then afterwards he asked me out to a coffee shop.” I tried to be as truthful as I could but it was really hard. “Then we went for a walk. I was showing him some of the sights…” I trailed off thinking how awful that sounded, as if I was one of the sights. “He, um, wanted to visit The Seven Sisters, they’re these really famous trees on the town Common. We hung out there to talk for a bit and then he just sort of dropped to the ground. Then I called the ambulance. That’s it, really.” I looked back up as I finished.

  I could see in his father’s eyes that he didn’t believe “that was it” for a second.

  “I’m confused about something,” he said carefully, “Are you saying that you and Aaron only met on Saturday for the first time, and yet during those, what, three hours you spent together, he gave you our phone number?”

  I swallowed. I would bet good money his father was a lawyer or something like that.

  His mother put her hand on her husband’s arm as if telling him to back off. “Emily, sweetie, we’re just trying to find out what he was thinking.” She looked at my hand, which had let go of Fletch’s but was still resting right beside his, on top of the sheets. My hand seemed to have been inching back towards his of its own accord. “The two of you seem to have become very close, very quickly?”

  I pulled my hand off the bed and sat on it. “I suppose we did, we sort of felt an instant bond,” I almost bit my tongue at my unfortunate use of the word bond. “I guess I feel as if I’ve known him a lot longer.” I groaned inwardly. I just couldn’t do this, I was totally lame!

  “So you and Aaron hadn’t had contact before? You hadn’t made friends online or something?” his mother pressed gently.

  I frowned in confusion. “No.” Though quite honestly I wished I’d said yes; it would have explained things a lot better.

  His father got to his feet, “Look, Emily. We have no desire to make you uncomfortable but this is serious. Please be honest with us. Are you and Aaron in a cult?”

  I almost fell off my chair backwards in surprise; what would make them think that?

  “A cult?” I said in disbelief.

  “Yes,” David Fletcher sat back down and rubbed his eyes as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was saying either. “It would explain so much, you see. Aaron was behaving unusually for quite some time before he took off. He was always on the computer and he always deleted his search history. He became distant and wouldn’t talk to any of us, and he kept disappearing. At first we thought it was random, but we eventually saw the pattern. He would always vanish for a couple of days around the full moon. We figured he must have gotten sucked into some kind of moon worshipping cult. I’m sorry if that term is offensive, Emily, we just don’t know what else to think. Is it some kind of pagan religion, is he into devil worship?”

  I reared back as though I had been slapped. I mean, I didn’t consider myself in any kind of religion, but witches were certainly more pagan than Christian
in their beliefs, but to suggest we were the same as devil worshippers was beyond acceptable. I’m learning to thank the Goddess for stuff, but only because that seems to be part and parcel of spell casting, and I really think that in general I am a good person and not evil.

  Fletch’s mum must have seen my expression, because she said more gently, “We really don’t mean to offend you, Emily, but we can’t let Aaron go until we understand what might have happened to him, what he might have been involved in. Was this some kind of ceremony gone wrong?”

  His dad looked like he might be having a heart attack; his face was all red and puffy. He put his hand on Fletch’s lifeless shoulder and struggled with his words. “The doctors can’t work out what’s wrong with him. I know it sounds completely ridiculous, but we are trying to be open-minded to anything you can tell us. Is this some kind of dark art? What happened to my boy? I need to know why he’s dead!”

  I was still sat in stunned silence, trying to process what they were saying. They were basically asking if he had been the victim of some magic, which he was! On the one hand it was amazing they were even open to the idea, but on the other, this was the kind of thing that would get me burnt at the stake.

  I said the only thing I could think of at the time: “He’s not dead.”

  His father seemed out of energy and had dropped his head into his hands. His mother, silently crying, reached out to me, but I pulled away.

  “He’s brain-dead, Emily, he’s gone. I know he seems alive right now, but the doctors can’t get any brainwave activity at all. We have to accept it.”

  “No!” I didn’t mean to raise my voice that much, but I couldn’t let them do something awful to his body, not when Fletch was going to be needing it back. I grabbed his hand again, and pulled it up to my heart. “Please, Fletch, please do something!” I wanted to shake him, but instead I burst into tears.

  The monitor above his bed quite audibly began to ping.

  We all turned to stare at it in stunned silence. It pinged five times and then stopped again.

  I dropped his hand and made a break for the door, but his mother got there first, blocking it. “David, fetch the nurse – now, please.”

  His father jumped up and left the room. Marion Fletcher stood still blocking the door from me.

  “What are you to him?” she whispered. “I’ve begged him over and over to give me a sign and got nothing!”

  “I’m sorry.” I was still crying. I wanted my dad to come and take me away, but he didn’t know who I was visiting. No one was going to rescue me; I had to deal with this. The real problem was that I didn’t actually know if Fletch had responded to me, or if my magic had set off the machines by accident. I had a bad feeling I had done it myself by willing a reaction of some sort, and it was nothing to do with Fletch’s feelings at all. “I don’t know what to tell you. But he’s not brain-dead, he’ll be back.”

  She took me firmly by the arm and sat me back down on my chair. “Tell me what you mean.” Her fingers dug into my arm until it hurt.

  I felt awful; she desperately wanted to hear something that could save her son, but I couldn’t tell her the truth. Or could I?

  I wasn’t sure if the werewolf community had rules, but witches did. I couldn’t tell my friends what I was, but I was allowed to tell my immediate family. That meant parents and siblings. I think the rule was mainly because witchcraft was hereditary, but werewolves weren’t hereditary, so I guessed the rules were different. I just didn’t know!

  I shook my head, “I can’t. But please trust me, you must not let him die yet.”

  She looked deep into my eyes. “We have to, Emily; the doctors say he’s gone, but his body could live for years if we keep the drip in. We have to take it out and watch our son die of thirst and hunger. Do you understand? I’m sorry to be so harsh, but if there is anything at all you can tell me to change that then, please, say it now.”

  I closed my eyes and asked the Goddess for inner strength not to say anything stupid. My fingertips were buzzing and I knew my magic was bubbling under the surface of my skin, but I couldn’t risk letting anything fly. Who knew what would happen if I did!

  Opening my eyes, I looked into her green ones, Fletch’s eyes.

  “It’s temporary.” I said with as much force as I could muster. “Please just wait until the weekend before you take the drip out.”

  “What do you know?” She lost her cool and started shaking me.

  And then I zapped her.

  I didn’t mean to. Electricity seemed to come out of my hands and I gave her a proper jolt, like lightening. She let go and backed away. She was staring at me with her mouth open.

  The nurse and Fletch’s dad came rushing back through the door, leaving it open behind them.

  I didn’t know what else to do, so I ran.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I went down the corridor, round the corner, down some stairs, along another corridor and then paused. No one was following me.

  This was bad. This was really really bad. The hospital had given Fletch’s parents my phone number and my address. They knew where I lived, they could come and talk to my dad, and I’d just used magic against Fletch’s mother!

  Blast, blast, and triple blast! Why hadn’t I just told them the truth about what he was? It would have distracted them from me; they might even have believed me – they seemed ready to believe anything. But then again, they thought it was just some cult thing, they didn’t think it was real paranormal stuff or anything like that.

  I couldn’t go back. It had all been way more intense than I could handle alone. I wondered whether to call Iris, but then I remember that my dad was picking me up around now; it would have to wait until I got home. I wondered if there was some magic I could do to make them forget, and make them wait to turn off Fletch’s drip.

  I went into the car park, but there was no sign of my dad. It was freezing outside, so eventually I went back into the building to the café on the ground floor.

  The first thing I saw were a pair of bright green eyes –this time on a pretty girl, aged about twelve. She looked strikingly similar to Fletch: same eyes, same colour hair. She was sat staring at the table, an untouched donut on a plate in front of her.

  Their whole family was being torn apart by this. I felt wretchedly responsible, even though I knew I’d only been trying to help, and he’d already been a werewolf long before he met me.

  I couldn’t do nothing. I went over and sat down opposite her.

  “Hi.” I willed her to look up. She did, cautiously, and slightly suspicious.

  “I’m a friend of Aaron’s,” I said softly.

  “Oh,” she visibly relaxed, “Are you Emily?”

  “Yes.” I nodded. “What’s your name?”

  “Penny.” She looked me up and down. “Has something supernatural happened to him?” She looked directly at me, and she didn’t seem to be joking.

  So I went for honesty. “Yes.”

  She cocked her head, reminding me a bit of Bob. “Is Aaron a werewolf?”

  I blinked in surprise; it was the last thing I expected her to say. I must have sat there gulping like a fish for a full minute, struggling with the concept of being truthful of not.

  “Yes,” I said at last.

  “I thought so.” She picked up her donut and took a bite, seemingly much more cheerful.

  “What made you ask that?” I said warily.

  “It made sense. He was attacked by something, and in hospital for a week. Then he kept disappearing at full moon. I pointed that out to my parents, but they wouldn’t listen about the werewolf bit and started on about religious cults.” She paused and licked jam off her fingers. “Is he going to die?” She said it matter-of-factly, but I could tell she was terrified.

  I shook my head firmly. “Not if I can help it.”

  “Did you do something to him?” Her green eyes locked on me and I shifted uncomfortably.

  “I tried to help him not be a werewolf anymore, but
something went wrong.”

  “But you can put it right?” She continued to stare at me as if willing me to do it just then.

  “I’ll try,” I promised. “But I can’t do it until the full moon on Saturday, so you have to make sure your parents keep his body alive and healthy until then.” I tried to give her my own assertive look. “Can you do that, Penny? Can you stop them from switching off his drip thing?”

  She chewed and swallowed with difficulty. “Yes,” she said as if there was nothing she wouldn’t do to make it happen. I believed she would, and sighed with relief.

  “Thank you.” I stood up, convinced that my dad would be outside by now. “I have to go. Look after him?”

  “Yes,” she said again, “and thank you, Emily, for whatever it is you are doing for him.”

  I couldn’t believe she was only twelve; she seemed so mature. Maybe I’d forgotten how grown-up girls were at twelve. She certainly seemed very switched-on and smart.

  I was hugely relieved to find my dad in the car park. I slid into the car, and turned the heater up a bit.

  “Rough visit?” he asked with concern, looking at my face.

  “Yeah.” I didn’t elaborate, and clicked on my seat belt.

  “It’s not one of your school friends, is it? Bryony or Kate?”

  “No. No one from school. A new friend.” I kept my head down, but I knew there would be more questions. I loved my dad, but I really wished he were a bit less caring sometimes.

  “What’s wrong with her? Or is it a him?” Dad probed.

  I sighed, “It’s a him, he’s in a sort of coma.” I knew I was being too brief, and my dad would keep picking. I took a deep breath to try to keep calm. I didn’t want to talk to my dad after everything I had been through tonight, but I knew it was unavoidable. Fletch’s parents were probably going to “out” me anyway. It seemed like this was the first time we had been alone in weeks, so I took advantage and asked him what I really wanted to.

  “Dad… Did you know Mum was a witch?”