Midnight Kiss

by Sarra Cannon

  I shuddered.

  The thought of losing my freedom was terrifying. No amount of power or wealth or beauty was worth handing my entire life over to them.

  And now they were going after the others who, like me, had escaped them when Harper brought down the blue demon gates. In total, Mom estimated there were at least three hundred young trainees freed when Harper closed the blue gates and the Order was unable to bring any more demons through them. There were probably five thousand witches, like my mother, who had once been a part of the Order and were now out on their own. Some of those witches had gone to other demon gate towns to seek refuge, willingly re-initiated into the Order through another portal. But many of them, like Mom, had gone into hiding, refusing to be a part of the Order’s plans.

  Mom had been sure that eventually the Order would come looking for us.

  She was right.

  If other girls were disappearing, it was only a matter of time before they started looking for me.

  And unlike my mother and the older witches, I had one very important weakness—a tracking device inside my own skin.

  I reached around and touched the spot on my lower back where the tattoo had been injected into my body.

  All the girls brought into training had one. I still remembered the night the girls from the cheerleading squad had showed up at my house in the middle of the night, giggling and telling me it was a fun hazing ritual they did every year to the new recruits. I had been a freshman at Peachville High School and it was the night before our first official practice. The seniors on the squad took my friend Tori and me out to a clearing in the middle of the woods, and told us to lie down on our stomachs on the grass. They’d lifted the back of our shirts and injected some kind of liquid into our skin.

  It was one of the creepiest, most terrifying moments of my life. I knew about the existence of magic, but this tattoo was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. It was alive, and every time I cast any kind of magic, it wriggled and moved against my skin like a tiny animal trapped beneath it.

  I later learned that the tattoo was a kind of tracking device. It was a way for the higher-ups in the Order to watch what I was doing and to listen in on my conversations. My tattoo took the form of a daisy. I remember watching it in the mirror the next day in awe as the petals dropped from it one-by-one. Once the petals had fallen, the flower reformed, swaying as if a gentle breeze were always blowing.

  My mother’s first priority when the demon gates fell was to find a way to silence that tattoo so the Order couldn’t find me.

  It took her two weeks of asking everyone she knew and thought she could trust. Finally, someone told her about Madame Kalisa and her shop here in New Orleans—The Midnight Cauldron. Madame Kalisa sold a very rare potion supposedly made by a vampire alchemist up north named Rend. The potion hid the tattoo from sight and silenced its magic for exactly one month at a time. At the end of every month, at exactly midnight, I had to drink a new potion.

  Kalisa assured us that as long as I took that potion at the right time, there was no way for the Order to claim me as one of their initiates.

  If I forgot, or didn't take the potion at exactly midnight, the tattoo would come to life and the Order would instantly know who—and where—I was.

  As a precaution, we’d secured new identities as the Goldbergs from California. I’d carefully created a new look using what I knew about glamours, changing just enough to make me unrecognizable to anyone who may have known me as Allison Moore back in Peachville.

  It was a lonely life of keeping secrets, but I had finally started to make friends again. I didn’t want to give that all up now and go on the run, but I definitely did not want to be discovered by the Order. I had no idea what they would do to me for running in the first place.

  What kind of punishment did they have in store?

  Someone knocked on the door of my dorm room, and I jumped.

  “What’s taking you so long?” Phoebe said through the door. She tried the handle, but I had locked it.

  “Just a second,” I said.

  I looked in the mirror again, checking my Alice in Wonderland costume to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. I grabbed the small vial of white liquid with the emblem of the snake across the glass and tucked it into my purse. My alarm was set for fifteen minutes before midnight. I was ready. Everything was going to be okay.

  I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and unlocked the door, hoping this Halloween had more treats than tricks up its sleeve.

  Whatever Magic It Held Inside

  Phoebe whistled as I opened the door.

  “Don’t you look sexy?” she teased. Her dark hair was pulled into two high pigtails and she was dressed in a naughty nurse’s uniform, complete with thigh-highs and a stethoscope.

  I had chickened out on the sexy thigh-highs that came with my costume, and gone for plain white pantyhose instead.

  “You look amazing,” I said.

  Phoebe was absolutely gorgeous. Her family was Indian, and she had flawless dark skin and deep brown eyes. She lived in the room across from mine, and we had hit it off right away. She was the perfect person to hang out with around campus because wherever we went, everyone noticed her and completely ignored me. Especially the guys.

  I had no doubt John Pierce would have treated Phoebe completely differently if it had been her serving him coffee this afternoon, instead of me.

  “I do, don’t I?” She laughed and curtsied, showing off her toned, perfect legs. “Come on, everyone’s already gathered in my room waiting for you.”

  I followed her across the hall, noticing that every girl on our floor was decked out in some version of a sexy cliche. Nurse. Witch. Cat. I was the only Alice in Wonderland that I saw, so far, but it wasn’t the most original costume on the planet. I chose it because being Alice for the night was close to being Allison, and I missed being Allison. It was my own little secret nod to the girl I used to be before my whole life came crashing down around me.

  Five other girls were crammed into Phoebe's room, waiting to go out for the night. Melissa from down the hall, Phoebe’s roommate Charity, my roommate Robin, and two of Phoebe’s friends, whom I didn’t know, as well—Amanda and Macie. They were all huddled around Phoebe’s desk, which was covered in multicolored jello shots.

  Phoebe reached through the crowd and grabbed two from the desk. “Here,” she said, handing me a green one. “I propose a toast.”

  I grabbed the shot, but my stomach was in knots. The last thing I needed was to get tipsy or drunk and lose track of time. Besides, no one here had any idea I was capable of casting magic. It had been difficult to conceal it from Robin since we lived in the same dorm room, but as far as I knew, she had no clue I was a witch.

  Losing control—even for a minute—was a very bad idea for a witch who wanted to keep her magic a secret from her friends.

  “My stomach is feeling a little upset,” I said, which wasn’t entirely a lie after the day I'd had at work. “I think I’ll pass for now.”

  I tried to hand the shot back to her, but Phoebe just pushed it toward me again.

  “No way. You’re not getting out of it that easy,” she said. “I see you, shy little Becca. Always avoiding the big campus parties and our movie nights when we’ve got a bottle of something to pass around. But not tonight. Tonight we agreed; we’re all going to get a little bit crazy in honor of Halloween. I mean, it's New Orleans. Am I right, girls?”

  The others cheered and lifted their little white cups to their lips. I shuddered, thinking Phoebe suddenly reminded me of Brooke—the head of the cheerleading squad a couple of years ago in Peachville. She was the queen of peer-pressure, always convincing me to do things I didn’t feel comfortable doing. And I always fell for it, desperate to be popular like her.

  But, I wasn’t that girl anymore.

  I tossed my shot into the trash, and Phoebe glared at me.

  “What the hell? You don’t have to waste it,” she said.

&nbs
p; I shrugged. “I tried to give it back to you.”

  She rolled her eyes and turned her back on me. As free and independent as I tried to act on the outside, I recognized the piercing pain of regret that shot through me. Old habits die hard and my habit was to please the popular girls.

  I almost followed my mother’s advice and told them I was sick and needed to stay home, but just before I opened my mouth to speak the words, Phoebe turned back toward me and nudged me with her elbow.

  “I was just teasing you,” she said with a smile. “Don’t take everything so seriously, Becca.”

  Even after months of being called by my new name, it felt foreign to me.

  “Sorry,” I said. “It’s been a long day. Work was hell.”

  Robin’s eyes grew wide and she leaned over Phoebe’s shoulder. “Did that John guy come in again today? Did you talk to him?”

  Robin knew all about my major crush on John Pierce. And my inability to get him to know I existed.

  I groaned and flopped down on Phoebe’s bed. “I tried, but he completely ignored me. As usual.”

  “He is so hot,” Robin said. “He could be the most popular guy on campus if he ever actually talked to anybody.”

  “John Pierce is so strange,” Phoebe said. She sat down next to me, resting her back against the wall and stretching her long legs out beside my short ones. “Who cares if he’s good looking if he’s a weirdo? You should go after that guy in your chemistry class who’s always talking to you. What was his name?”

  “Wes,” I said, shaking my head. “He’s not my type.”

  “Are you kidding me? He’s every girl’s type,” she said with a laugh. “Rich. Good-looking. Tall.”

  “I heard he’s pledging A-E-Pi,” Charity said. “His roommate, Sean, is in my calculus class, and he said they’d be at their party tonight. They invited us to go and Sean hinted very strongly that Wes was hoping you’d be there.”

  My stomach fluttered, but not because I was attracted to Wes. I was upset someone like Wes had taken notice of me. I’d tried to give hints that I wasn’t interested, but he didn’t seem to take any of them seriously. Maybe he thought I was just playing hard to get. Wes was exactly the kind of guy I needed to steer clear of if I wanted to stay out of the public eye.

  Maybe that was why John had caught my attention. I liked how solitary he was. He seemed so confident and completely satisfied to be alone. I wanted to be more like that. Of course, the irony was that if a famous recluse like John Pierce ever asked me out, everyone would talk about it for months. Still, he seemed like a safe enough crush, since there was absolutely no chance of that actually happening, ever.

  Lost in my daydream, I failed to notice the fact that Phoebe had been casually going through my purse. She lifted the small vial of white liquid toward the light.

  “What the heck is this?”

  Fear shot through me.

  It took everything in my power not to snatch the vial from her hand and punch her in the throat for going through my bag. Who does that?

  “It’s my medicine,” I said through gritted teeth. I reached for the vial, but she moved it out of my reach.

  “Medicine with a cobra on it?” she said. “I don’t think so.”

  “Let me see that,” Robin said. She took the potion from Phoebe and studied it. “I’ve seen one of these in our trash before. What is it?”

  I stood and held my hand out, trying not to come completely undone. “Give it back, please.”

  Robin put her hand behind her back. “Not until you tell us what it is.”

  Panic surged through my veins. Crap. How did things get out of hand so quickly? Of all nights for this to be happening, why tonight?

  I moved around her and tried to pry her fingers open, but she switched the vial to her other hand and tossed it over my head to Phoebe, who was now standing on her bed.

  “Becca, dear, are you taking some kind of secret drugs?” Phoebe asked. “And here I thought you were being a prude for not drinking tonight. Guess you have something far more scandalous planned for later.”

  “I’m serious. Give it back to me,” I said.

  “Just tell us what it is,” Phoebe said. She put her hand on the cork at the top as if she was going to open it. “What would happen if I took a sip? Would it get me high or something?”

  “No. I told you, it’s medicine,” I said. I tried not to show how freaked out I was, but if she opened that vial I was in big trouble.

  “Medicine comes in little orange prescription bottles,” Phoebe said. “Not test tubes with snakes on it.”

  “It’s from my acupuncturist,” I said, throwing out the first thing that popped into my head. “Stop fooling around. I need it.”

  “Is it just me, or is our little Becca getting really riled up about this?” Phoebe said.

  That was the second time she’d referred to me as ‘little’ and while I was somewhat on the short side, it was starting to piss me off. She did not want to see me when I was angry. Not when my whole life was at stake. For the first time since I’d moved onto campus, I was tempted to use my magic to hurt someone.

  I grabbed her leg and pulled her down onto the bed, but before I could grab the vial, she tossed it to one of the other girls. When I turned around, they were all holding their hands behind their backs. My face flushed with anger and fear. I couldn’t tell them what was in the vial, but the more important I made it seem, the more determined they were to play around with it.

  I took a breath and tried a different tactic.

  “Fine,” I said with a shrug. “Have at it if you guys want to try it. It won’t do anything unless you have a migraine you need cured.”

  “Aww, Becca, you have migraines?” Charity asked. She put her hand on my arm. “My dad has terrible ones. They knock him out for days sometimes. I had no idea.”

  I relaxed slightly. Sympathy was a much more reassuring reaction.

  “I’m okay most of the time, but I’ve tried lots of different kinds of medicine and nothing seems to work,” I said. “Acupuncture’s really been helping. This is just a custom mix of some herbs and stuff. I carry it with me when I go out just in case one hits me out of nowhere.”

  “I’m sorry,” Phoebe said, coming down from her spot on the bed. She walked over to Carol and held out her hand. Carol shrugged and placed the vial in Phoebe’s palm. “I thought we’d discovered some deep, dark secret about you.”

  She crossed toward me and her foot caught on the edge of the thick rug in the middle of the room. I watched in horror as she fell, dropping the vial onto the tile floor. The glass shattered and white liquid oozed across the floor, giving off a faint glow before it darkened to a dull grey.

  I fell to my knees beside the ruined potion, my mouth open in disbelief.

  Oh my God.

  This couldn’t be happening. I was always so careful. I bought the potion days in advance of the full moon. I carried it with me at all times just to be sure I wouldn’t miss taking it at the right time.

  Hot tears fell across my cheeks. I tried to scoop what was left of the potion into my hands, but it was obvious from the dull color that it was ruined. Whatever magic it held inside was gone, and I could feel my future slipping away along with it.

  The Midnight Cauldron

  “Becca, I’m so sorry,” Phoebe said. She put her hand on my shoulder, but I shrugged it off.

  I didn’t want her to touch me. It was an accident, but there was no way I could possibly explain to her what she had just done.

  Broken glass dug into my hands. What was I supposed to do now? The potion was useless.

  I didn’t even want to think about what would happen after midnight if I didn’t get my hands on another one.

  “What time is it?” I asked. I stood, the broken glass cradled in my bleeding palms.

  “Why does it matter?” Robin asked.

  I cringed. They were all looking at me like I was some kind of lunatic drug addict, desperate for a fix. “I need to try t
o get another one,” I said. “I’ve been feeling a headache coming on all day, which is why I was bringing this with me tonight. If it develops into a full-blown migraine, I’ll be out for days.”

  It was a weak lie, but it was all I could come up with. It was hard enough to keep the growing desperation off my face.

  “It’s almost nine,” Phoebe said. She put a hand on her hip, eyebrows raised. “Is your acupuncturist open this late?”

  “Maybe,” I mumbled. “Can someone get the door for me?”

  Robin opened the door, and I hurried to the bathroom. This was one of those times I cursed having to share a bathroom with an entire floor full of girls. They all followed me. I turned on the water and washed the glass from my hands. Small pinpricks of blood oozed from my fingers.

  “I really am sorry,” Phoebe said. “It was an accident.”

  “You shouldn’t have been going through my bag in the first place,” I said. “I’m sure you don’t want me going through your private things.”

  “If I had known how sensitive you were going to be about it, I wouldn’t have bothered,” she said.

  I let the water run on my hands, nursing an injury for the second time today. Nine o’clock on Halloween night. Would The Midnight Cauldron be open this late? If it was, I was sure Kalisa's place would be flooded with tourists. A voodoo shop on Halloween? This was going to be a nightmare, but I had to try, at least. It was either that or get on the road to Alabama and pray Mom and I could find a place to hide once this tattoo on my back came to life again.

  “You guys should go ahead and do whatever you were headed to do,” I said. “I’m going to go see if I can get another po— vial of that medicine.” I barely caught myself before I called it a potion. “I’ll meet up with you later.”

  “Are you sure?” Robin asked. “Can’t you just see if you can get one in the morning?”

  I shook my head. “I really do feel a migraine coming on,” I said. “I’m going to at least see if she’s open.”