“Sully, can you at least give me the street name to turn on before I pass it? You’re making me toss the girls all over the back seat.”
Sully turned his head to look in the back of the car. “Are you serious, Dude? Can you hear them? They’re talking so much, they don’t even know the car is moving.”
I had to laugh. Sully always told it like it was. And he was right about the girls. You’d think they would get enough of one another at home, where we always were. But no, they got in the car and acted like they hadn’t seen each other for a year.
“Logan, I think this is the street here, Ruthann Avenue.”
I turned and we both looked for the address, 755 Ruthann.
“There it is. The blue one with the white fence.”
I pulled up to the house and parked at the curb. Miraculously, as soon as I did, the girls stopped talking to each other and started talking to us about the house.
“Oh, Sully! Look how cute it is!” Jade had already opened her door and climbed out. Serena wasn’t far behind her.
The front door to the house opened and Dave and Tamera came out. I stood and stared. Gone were the two lovestruck teenagers I remembered from high school, my friends since we were all young children. In their place, were two married young adults. I hadn’t seen either of them since the wedding, when I watched them walk down the aisle and pledge to love, honor and cherish each other for all the days of their lives. The two people standing in front of me now looked exactly like what they were: a happily married newlywed couple.
“Sully! Logan! Serena! Jade! Hey, you guys! You’re here!” Dave’s voice boomed out in our direction, but his voice surely carried all over the neighborhood. I grinned. Now that resembled the Dave I knew. He bounded down from his front steps and bear-hugged Sully and me in turn, then nearly crushed the girls in a two-for-one deal. Tamera strolled over and expertly peeled him back from our group.
“Relax, Dave. You’ll scare them off before I get to show off any of the wedding china. Come on, you guys. I’m sure Dave wants to show the guys the garage or something.” Tamera rolled her eyes, but I noticed her pat Dave on the fanny as she left away with Serena and Jade, the three of them jabbering and laughing, half walking and half hugging as she led them into the house, leaving me and Sully in the front yard with Dave.
“So, Dave, how’s married life treatin’ ya?” asked Sully.
“Great. Turns out Tam’s quite the little cook. And she likes to keep a tidy house, too. It’s kind of nice.” He looked down at the lawn. “You know, I really love her. It surprises me sometimes how much. But, I really do.”
I clapped Dave on the back. “That’s great, Dave. I always knew you and Tam would end up together. I knew it when we were five. You two are perfect for each other.”
“Yeah. Thanks. And how about you two? Looks like things are still going good for both of you.” He playfully punched Sully on the arm. “Logan still sore at you for datin’ his sister?”
Sully laughed nervously. “No, we, ah…we got over that. Right, Logan?”
“Yeah. I guess we did. She could do worse, I figure.”
“Ouch.”
“Thanks, man. That’s real nice.”
“You know I’m joking, Sul. No, Dave, I’m really okay with it now. I mean, look at us. Double-dating and everything. Plus, Serena and Jade are really close and all.”
As if on cue, we could hear the girls’ laughter filtering out the open windows of the house and spilling onto the front lawn. We all looked at each other.
“I think we’re missing some of the fun.” Sully turned and headed toward the door.
“Yeah,” Dave agreed. “Let’s get this party started. I turned and followed Dave into his house. It was time to get this party started. And it sounded like the girls were starting without us.
****
A few hours later, after Tamera’s great dinner, we were all hanging around their back patio enjoying a nice bottle of wine and the warm twilight of the evening.
“This really is a charming little house, Tamera, and you have fixed it up so cute.” Serena sat in the same lounge chair as me, resting against my knees. “I especially love the wall colors you chose. So earthy and rich.”
“Well, don’t get too used to it.” Tamera had a mischievous smile on her face.
“Why not?”
“Yeah, why not?” Jade interjected. “Are you moving?”
“Yes, and no.” Tamera answered with a giggle.
Sully had obviously had enough. He put down his drink and turned to Dave.“What does that mean? Either you are or you aren’t. Which is it?”
Dave sighed and addressed his wife. “Cut the mystery, Tam. It’s not fun if you’re not in on the joke.” He addressed us then. “We are moving, but not right away. We have to wait for the house to get built.”
“You’re building your own house?” Incredulity crept into Sully’s voice.
“Yup. Sure am. Me and Tam are gonna be homeowners.” He slipped an arm around Tamera and proudly snugged her close when he said the last word. “We were going to wait and announce this at our big housewarming party next month, but I guess we can tell you guys now. We’re having the house built from scratch on our very own property.”
Next to me, Serena sat up and set her wine glass down. Very faint, so softly only I could hear it, she said, “Oh, no.” She had turned pale.
“That sounds so grown-up, Tamera. Where is it going to be?” Jade asked.
“Remember my where my uncle’s barn used to be, where we had the St. Patrick’s Day Party? We broke ground there last week. We’re putting in a swimming pool!”
Chapter Eighteen
LOGAN
The dinner party ended pretty quickly following Tamera’s revelation. Someone brought Serena a cool cloth and some water and she felt better shortly after that. Of course, Sully, and Jade and I knew what made her pass out, but we couldn’t tell our hosts. Serena made up a story about not being a wine-drinker and Dave and Tamera bought it. She endured some good-natured teasing about her being a lightweight which she took in stride, given the circumstances.
In short time, we called it an evening. Truth be told, we couldn’t get out of there fast enough. We said our thank yous and goodbyes and let the girls hug for longer than we wanted, then we beat feet out of there. As soon as we were in the car, everyone started talking at once. Jade being fastest and loudest, she beat everyone to the inevitable punch.
“Are we all thinking the same thing? Is that how Christophe got back? Did they let him out somehow?”
“It might make sense, I suppose.” Serena tried to reason it out. “Logan, you led him into that black hole in the center of the barn. I guess if you can go in, you can come out.”
“What are the odds that they would build a freakin’ swimming hole right where we tried to toast that sucker? I don’t know all the rules of Witch World here, but shouldn’t one of them be, if the earth swallows you up, you’re done?” Sully drove for this ride home, one-handed, since Jade hadn’t let go of his other hand from the time we got in the car. Serena stretched out along the back seat, resting her head in my lap. She still felt woozy after fainting, and anyway, I wanted her to be comfortable.
I gazed out the car window. I noticed the sudden change in temperature, climate, and even the color of the sky. In hindsight, perhaps my concern for Serena caused me to miss all the increasingly obvious signs. I should have noticed the sky, the telltale clouds, even the moistness to the air. If I hadn’t been so preoccupied with Serena, I would have. But I didn’t. So when the first drops of rain fell, it didn’t seem out of the ordinary. It always rained in New Hampshire this time of the year. It seemed natural. If I had only been paying better attention, I would have realized it right away.
“Looks like we’re in for some rain. Maybe even something more.” Jade peered out the window, too.
She was right. When I looked out the window a second later it was well on its way to becoming a thundershower and it ap
peared to be revving up for even more. In a matter of minutes we were in a torrential downpour complete with matching winds and suddenly, Sully had trouble keeping Serena’s puny little car straight on the road.
“Hang on everyone!” Sully hollered over the howling wind.
The sky was lit by blue-white light, and a split second later pounding thunder shook the car. Then we were surrounded by pitch blackness outside our vehicle, and visibility was nearly nonexistent. More frightening flashes of lightning became the only light as the darkness swallowed even our headlights. Each crack of thunder and brilliant spark of lightning came closer together.
The lightning strikes visibly touched earth as they came menacingly closer to us. It came to me with alarming clarity that this would not be a normal weather occurrence. Someone or something had made this other-worldly storm happen.
“Sully, stop the car!” I yelled.
He stomped the brake. We were flung forward as the car came to an abrupt stop. Thankfully, we all had our seatbelts on except for Serena, and I had a firm grip.
“I think it’s safest if the car isn’t moving!” I shouted over the powerful noise of the storm. “This isn’t a normal storm! I think Christophe may be behind it!”
“He’s right! I feel it!” Serena sat up beside me. Even though she had raised her voice like the rest of us, she still sounded strangely calm. She leaned into me.
“Logan, you know I can do something to stop this.” She spoke low enough that only I could hear her, but Jade looked back over the front seat and looked right at her.
“It’s too dangerous, Serena! The storm is too powerful!” Her words were punctuated by another violent pounding of thunder and blinding zap of light, closer still to the car than the last.
“You don’t understand, Jade.” I told her. “Serena, can do things you don’t know about. Things with the elements, you know, with wind and water. She can control it.” I couldn’t keep the pride out of my voice, even in the face of this storm. I felt Serena’s hand reach over and find mine.
“I’ve never tried to harness a storm like this before, but I’m sure I can do it. My powers are so much stronger than they’ve ever been before. I have to do something.” The conviction in Serena’s voice was unmistakable. She would do something whether I wanted her to or not.
Jade turned fully around in the passenger seat. “Christophe! Do you think it’s him?”
“Man, what does it take to kill that dude?” Sully finally caught on to the conversation.
Serena’s body flung into mine as another earsplitting thunderclap rocked the little car. This time the lightning seemed to be right outside the car, almost as if it were tracking us.
“What’s that?” Sully pointed out the front window and we all looked in that direction. We could barely see out the rain-battered windshield. Dimly outlined on the road in front of us stood a person, tattered clothing whipping in the wind, but otherwise apparently unaffected by the unnatural storm.
A tremendous flash of lightning lit the sky as bright as sunshine and the lone figure was brilliantly illuminated.
Gypsy!
Everyone started yelling at once. It was impossible to determine who was shouting what.
“Gypsy! What is she doing here?”
“How did she get here?”
“What is going on?”
Only Serena remained silent. She opened the car door and put one foot on the ground outside.
“Where are you going?” I asked her. She turned and looked at me and answered without speaking.
I know why she’s here. Don’t worry Logan. We can handle this. She opened the car door and joined Gypsy on the road.
I crammed my body through the two front seats so I could see what was happening.
“Sully, turn the car back on and use the wipers! I can’t see a thing!” The wind still screamed and I still had to shout to be heard. Sully did as I asked and I almost wished he hadn’t. As soon as the windshield cleared, the three of us could see Gypsy and Serena standing next to each other, holding their hands raised up to the sky. They were both soaked, Serena’s dress now torn to shreds by the violent wind like Gypsy’s, ripping around her legs like whips. Their hair tangled wildly in the crazy wind, flowing crazily around their heads almost like crowns.
I’d never seen anything more fascinating or beautiful.
A mini-cyclone whirled behind them. The water snake struck without warning, leaping out and coiled itself around Gypsy’s ankles.
Inside the car, Jade screamed and Sully and I hollered, but Serena was already ten steps ahead of us. She broke hands with Gypsy and grasped the tail end of the giant water snake. I felt, rather than saw her concentrate her powers on it and we watched in awe as the demonic tool of Christophe’s wrath turned from a watery viper to an icy eel. With the next clap of thunder, Gypsy reached up into the sky and coaxed a rod of lightning and redirected it into the frozen constrictor and it fell away from Gypsy’s legs and shattered into a million pieces.
Serena then called to all the water funnels that had been forming and whirled them together into one enormous tornado. Gypsy stepped back as Serena commanded all the rain clouds and water swirls into the giant whirlpool. Then she slowly ground the cyclone into the ground, whipping water from it back into the heavens as it got smaller and smaller. As rods of lightning loosened and freed themselves, escaping the confines of the funnel, Gypsy would catch them and smother them, not allowing them further damage, and never allowing them to get near the little car again. Soon, the water funnel represented nothing more than a little spurt. Then, the rain had subsided and the deafening noise from the thunder reduced to occasional low booms.
With the rain coming down now in just a manageable shower, the three of us burst from the car and ran over to Gypsy and Serena.
“O! M! G! That was the most amazing thing I have ever seen! How did you even know we were here? How did you even get here?” Jade spilled over with questions for Gypsy, but we all wanted to know the same things.
Gypsy smiled as she gave us the answers. “Prudence, of course. My mother and she were downstairs in the kitchen of the big house having tea when she had one of her visions. She knew instantly what your friends told you about breaking ground at the site of the old barn, how Christophe likely got free, and how you were in trouble in the manufactured storm. My mother looked at me and told me this would be right up my alley.”
“But how did you get here?”
Gypsy smiled again. “Can’t you guess?”
Serena knew. “Astral projection.” She turned to me. “Eve is the authority on it.” She addressed Sully and Jade. “When I received my coven training in the individual witch disciplines, Gypsy’s mother taught me about astral projection. I remember it as the hardest to learn. Even harder than flight.”
“Holy cow, Serena. You can fly?” Sully choked out.
Serena took one look at Sully and just started laughing. We all needed that to cut the tension. Leave it to Sully to bring us back to reality, or at least the new reality of my life. I hugged my girlfriend and we made plans to go home. And this time, Gypsy traveled by car.
Chapter Nineteen
LILY
I turned around this way and that, looking at myself in the full length mirror. I liked the way the dress fit, I just wasn’t sure if it would be the right thing to wear.
“What do you think?” I asked Elizabeth. I had asked her to come into my room and help me pick out an outfit. I would be going on my third date with Declan and I had a feeling it qualified as a “special” one.
“After all,” I explained to Elizabeth, “As a grown woman, with a previous marriage, I have every right to spend time with a man if I want to. Never mind that the very idea scares me half to death. I’ve never spent this much time with anyone except my husband and there had been no one since his death four years ago.” I turned around in front of the mirror and faced Elizabeth. “Sometimes it still feels like I’m cheating on Evan. And another thing. There is
still something about Declan I just can’t put my finger on, some intangible quality that doesn’t seem quite right.
“I think you’re being too cautious” said Elizabeth.
“I never feel that way with him. Then, I seem to be completely under his spell. Only times like now, away from him, do I consider not seeing him at all. But right now, I need your help choosing a dress to wear tonight.
“You look beautiful in all of them, Lily. But, if I had to choose, I’d say the purple one. It just hugs your curves. It’s perfect on you.”
“I’m just so nervous, Elizabeth. I want to look nice.” I reached into my closet and pulled out a pair of camel-colored suede pumps. Turning to my dresser, I chose a pair of diamond earrings my husband had given me for our tenth anniversary. I hadn’t worn them in a long time. I held them in my hands a moment longer than I should have before I put them in my earlobes. Evan would want me to be happy, I kept telling myself. I could hear him saying I wasn’t the dead one, and you are still alive, Lily. He would actually get mad at me for not getting out there sooner. The thought of my strong, handsome husband made me smile and a wave of longing for him rushed over me, so strong and so unexpected I had to grab the edge of the dresser as it pulsed through me. His presence seemed so compelling to me, it was as though he were here in the room with us.
“Are you listening to me, Lily? You deserve this. You work too hard as it is. A night out is just what the doctor ordered.”
“I’m listening. You’re right. It’ll be great. I’m just being silly, right?” I wasn’t fully convinced, but I turned from the dresser and put my hands on my hips. “So? What do you think? Will I pass?”
Elizabeth stood up and pretended to give me the once-over. She walked back and forth and appraised me sternly, folding her arms across her chest and cupping her chin in her hands. Then she flung her hands in the air.
“Are you kidding me?” She cried. “You look incredible!”
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