by Karen Ranney
The floor was constructed of long planks of what looked to be mahogany, beautifully waxed until I could see myself in them. The half-dozen chandeliers had five tiers, each one draped in hundreds of crystal prisms. They weren’t lit right now, given that it was morning. Instead, the ballroom was bathed in sunlight from the cupola and the jeweled colors from the stained glass. I’d never seen such artistry outside of a church.
Three walls were inlaid with six floor to ceiling windows, each one bearing different scenes of what looked to be knights and ladies. Probably something from the Arthurian legends. When I had time, I was going to figure out what story they told, but right now I had to address the fact that there were a bunch of witches in white robes and hoods standing there.
Holy magic wand. Nobody told me there’d be twenty of them. Or that they would look like a contingent of the KKK.
The witches were arranged in a horseshoe shape at the end of the ballroom, each of them facing me. Nonnie was there, almost in the center, standing to the right of Janet, Dan’s mother. I recognized the woman who led the Dallas covens, but that was it. The others were strangers to me, women ranging in age from their twenties to a few whose gray hair peeped out from their hoods.
Altogether, they were a scary bunch. Maybe it was the white robes. Or just the fact they seemed intensely focused on little ol’ me.
I’ve seen a cat eyeing a bird with the same look.
I was getting vibes from some of them, and I didn’t know if it was a newfound power or a corruption of the headache I used to get in the presence of witches. As I studied them, one by one, I felt that a few of them just wanted me gone, as in permanently off the planet. A few others were more curious than hostile, and one or two didn’t bear any ill will toward me, but were concerned that I might bring harm to their group.
Was each witch a representative of a coven?
I didn’t mind being tested. The problem was, I didn’t know what was going to happen at the end of the test. Would it be a good or a bad thing if I had witch powers? Would that convince the witches to help me in my battle against the vampires and the OTHER?
That’s the real reason I was here, because I needed the witches on my side. Otherwise, it was one goddess against the whole of the paranormal world and that hardly seemed fair.
I heard a whirring sound above me and the cupola began to close. The room was growing dim, the jewel toned light from the stained glass the only illumination. I was cast in green and blue, the colors almost feeling cool against my face.
I hadn’t dressed for the occasion. Instead, I’d opted for comfort, wearing a dark blue sweater over a white blouse and my nearly new jeans. My pink and green sneakers almost seemed disrespectful.
They needed to take themselves less seriously, a suggestion I was not going to make to twenty witches.
They stirred, Janet stepping forward as they closed ranks behind her.
She stared straight at me while talking, as if I didn’t have a clue who she was addressing. I really think she liked being head honcho of this gathering and she didn’t mind me being at the point of the skewer, either.
All I had to do was keep the objective in mind: I was here because I needed their help.
“Have you come here of your own free will, Marciela Montgomery?”
We were not starting off on the right foot.
“I prefer Marcie,” I said. “I don’t use Marciela.”
Janet didn't look as if she liked being corrected. Too bad. I wasn't going to let Dan’s mother intimidate me. It was bad enough that Nonnie was giving me the gimlet eye.
I wanted to issue a blanket apology to my grandmother for anything that I may do or say in the next few minutes that might offend her. Old habits die hard, and I had been reared to respect my elders and especially Nonnie. She’d been my savior more than once, from the time she used to bring me my lunch when I’d forgotten it to the day she came to rescue me in middle school. I'd had an accident of the menstruation kind and she had been there just as I was trying to figure out how I was going to leave the school with that big stain on the back of my skirt.
It had never occurred to me back then how she'd always known when I needed her. Now I knew it had something to do with witchy ESP.
"Are you here of your own volition, Marcie Montgomery?” Janet asked.
I could be magnanimous in victory. I smiled.
"Yes," I said.
"And you have come to be tested, is that correct?”
I wondered if any of the tests I would undergo would be painful. Was it acceptable to ask?
“Yes,” I said.
“Are you willing to accept our judgment?"
"There will be no judging, Mother."
Well, hell, I hadn't expected Dan. He stood at the entrance to the ballroom, about a dozen feet away from me, his gaze meeting Janet’s. I had a feeling they were transmitting more information than just a question about judgment and what the hell did she mean by that?
While I was wondering, my grandmother stepped forward.
“Let the tests begin," Nonnie said.
The witches curved themselves into a circle. Nonnie motioned me to the center and I went reluctantly, all too conscious of Dan still standing at the entrance to the ballroom dressed in a dark blue suit and looking yummy. Was he going to stay there? I wasn't sure how I felt about that. Shouldn't a girl have some secrets? He was going to know everything I could do as far as witches were concerned. But perhaps any reticence or modesty was foolish at this point. His mother would probably have told him everything anyway.
At least, this way, I was guaranteed the trial would be fair.
I deliberately looked away from Dan. When I was pregnant, my hormones went wild, but I suspected they did that with every woman. I got emotional, which I expected. I also got frisky, a euphemistic term for what I felt when Dan got close. I wanted to jump his bones, do the horizontal mamba, and test out his equipment. Besides, I remembered, only too well, what he looked like naked.
I had no restraint. Opie would have called me a bitch in heat, which meant that I should probably have my dog around me at all times. If nothing else, s/he would keep me from making an ass out of myself.
It was one thing being attracted to a guy, but I felt something a little more than lust and warning bells were going off.
Dan, however, evidently felt nothing. He hadn’t leered at me lately. He hadn’t made a pass. He hadn’t put his hands on me. He hadn’t hugged me. Nor had he tried to kiss me. He certainly hadn’t suggested that I return to the firing range with him. Nothing had happened and I mean nada, zip, zilch.
I might be getting a complex about it.
See, my hormones were going bananas. One minute I was telling myself to avoid him and the next I was getting annoyed because he had. I think I was in trouble, and not just from the witches.
Chapter Twelve
Mea Culpa Times 100
Arthur Peterson hadn’t been all that fond of witches. He’d banned his daughter-in-law from coming to the castle in his lifetime. I wonder if Janet was feeling all powerful now. Would Arthur’s ghost make an appearance in retribution?
Speaking of ghosts, I was shocked to see someone in a white robe leading Charlie in on a leash. What the hell was he doing here?
"It has come to our attention that you have a familiar,” Janet said.
I wasn't exactly sure what a familiar was, but didn’t witches have cats? I guess I had a golden retriever.
The white robed figure brought Charlie to my side. I took the leash, bent to pet him, whispering in his ear, “Don't say a word, Opie.”
She chuffed her agreement.
I stood and faced Janet.
What had started out as a way to get into the witches’ good graces wasn’t striking me as a smart decision right now.
The room was atmospheric, to say the least. The red and yellow light seemed directed purposefully on several of the witches. I was the only one standing in a puddle of blue and green.
&nb
sp; If I knew more about witchcraft, I’d know if those colors were important to them. Or what it meant to smell ginger and something reminding me of pumpkin pie.
I began to feel a soft hum, an energy from the circle. It began at my feet, until the rubber soles of my sneakers were buzzing like they had batteries in them. The sensation crept up my legs, as if the witches were manufacturing the current with their humming.
Janet stood watching me and Nonnie seemed to be studying her, but in the shifting colors it was difficult to tell.
The humming had taken on a beat of its own. Were the witches summoning their own power or were they driving it from all the other witches out there? Could they do that? Were the witches in their covens taking a personal day in order to lend their power to this demonstration?
I was impressed. I just didn’t know what was going to come next. Were they going to do a super duper zap on me?
I could feel the power build in the room. What did Janet want, an explosion? Or did she want me to respond? What would she do if I told her that I didn’t know the extent of my powers? Now was not the ideal time to find out.
At least I’d discovered I had a protective aura and envisioned it surrounding both Charlie and me like a golden capsule. Charlie made a sound that was too close to a human moan, but nobody seemed to notice.
I put my hand on Charlie’s head, massaging one ear. He liked that, and he tilted his head toward me as his tail rose and fell against the floor.
The capsule glowed a little more as the buzz faded, but I could still feel it pressing against the aura. It was at my waist now, circling like a candy cane stripe, trying to find a way in.
Inside the aura it was quiet, almost peaceful. I didn’t hear anything but the echo of my own beating heart. The glow from the aura obscured my vision a little, but I could still see Dan standing there, his pose one of a sentry alerted to danger. Everything about him, from his widely spaced feet to the way his head was angled, spoke of a man ready to take decisive action.
I turned my head, made out Janet standing not ten feet away from me. To my surprise, she was illuminated by the golden rays of the aura. I guess I had my answer, then. It was visible to other people.
She looked surprised, but not Nonnie. She only smiled faintly, as if she expected no less from me.
Of course, my granddaughter is a goddess, you know. Oh, yes, we knew she’d be a goddess from the day she was born. Why, she changed her formula into nectar as a baby.
If anyone was suffering from shock over the events of the last few months, it should be my grandmother. First, I was human, sort of, a hybrid witch/vampire child. Then I was a vampire. Then I was a Pranic vampire who morphed into a Dirugu who was a goddess. Nonnie didn’t look the worse for wear. Instead, she appeared to be having fun.
Too bad I didn’t feel the same.
I tested the air by letting the aura subside a little. The humming had stopped. I guess Janet had given up that part of the test.
After another minute of silence, I let the capsule disappear completely. Charlie let out a sigh that was once again more human than canine.
"Which powers do you claim, Marcie Montgomery?" Janet asked.
"I don't know what you mean,” I said, confused.
"She doesn't claim anything, Mother," Dan said. "She's never claimed to have witch powers."
She sent him a sour look. Evidently, Dan wasn’t doing what she expected.
"Very well," she said. "We will just have to test each one.”
She raised her right hand and suddenly a stream of fire jetted toward me.
Frankly, I didn’t know if what I was seeing was real or just an advanced kind of thought control. I decided to treat it like Janet was trying to mentally manipulate my environment.
I closed my eyes and envisioned the ball of flames hitting my hand, doing a somersault and careening back toward Janet. When I opened my eyes it was to see Janet staring at me. The expression on her face indicated that she was super pissed, which didn't augur well for the rest of the test.
The tornado of air almost flattened me. Charlie whimpered at my side, and I reached out and grabbed his collar to hold him still. The air felt real and it was damn hard to control. I mentally placed it above me where it couldn’t do any damage.
What else was she going to throw at me? And why? To see if I could survive? Or to see if I could control the elements? I wasn’t controlling the elements; I was counteracting her thoughts. But what would the other witches think? Were they seeing what I was seeing? For that matter, was Dan? Or were the fire and the air only things I could see?
I didn't want witchy powers. I knew I couldn't be who I was, Marcie Montgomery, insurance adjuster. That ship had sailed. But I sure as hell didn't want any more abilities than I had now. I just wanted to be able to live, if that word could be used to describe a vampire turned goddess. I wanted to be able to protect my child. I wanted the other stuff, too. I wanted to be happy. I wanted to laugh. I didn't want to harm those around me. I wanted to be in love.
I didn't want to be able to do spells or harness magic. I didn’t want to be a guinea pig. I didn’t want to be taken advantage of, and I sure as hell didn’t want to be tested.
Leave me alone.
The three words reverberated in the ballroom as if I’d screamed them into a microphone. I saw the looks on the witches’ faces as they looked at one another. I felt their fear as if it were tangible, a living presence suddenly in the room with us.
I hadn't even thought of saying the words but I repeated them now in my mind.
Leave me alone.
Charlie whimpered beside me, enough of a reminder that I suddenly realized what I’d done. I’d let the witches know that I had my own brand of thought control.
Janet stepped back. The anger on her face had been wiped away to be replaced by something else, either awe or uncertainty.
She didn’t know what I was and it scared her.
I needed to control my emotions or the stained glass windows were in grave danger of being destroyed.
I looked at Dan, who hadn’t moved from his stance by the door. He was watching me and I wanted to know, more than at any time since I’d met him, what he was thinking. Was he afraid of me, too? Did he think I was some sort of weird and repulsive aberration?
“What do they want from me?” I asked. I wasn’t sure who I addressed, either the convocation of witches or the ether. “What exactly are they trying to find out?”
“If you pose a threat to them,” Nonnie said.
I turned to face Nonnie. She stepped forward until she stopped only a few feet away.
“I don’t.”
“They don’t know that, Marcie.”
“If you thought I had any witchy talents, Nonnie, why didn’t you test me earlier?”
She smiled. Not her usual pleasant smile that gave you a warm feeling in the pit of your stomach, but a sad smile that made me think that she was regretting a great many things in the past. Like letting me live?
“Perhaps I should have, child. We can’t change what is done, however. I am asking you to concede to the test, to let them know what you can do.”
I wasn’t even sure what I could do.
“Can’t they just take my word for it? If they leave me alone, I’ll leave them alone.”
“And if they don’t?”
“I’ll give them back everything they send me and more.”
Instinctively, I knew I could do that. In the past, all of my actions toward the witches had been in response to what they’d initiated. Now, however, I was tempted to turn aggressive and I knew I could be. Whether that would be wise was another question entirely.
Her eyes hadn’t left me. She was doing the grandmother thing. The look that says you’re not meeting her expectations, that you’ve somehow failed.
I took a deep breath, then nodded.
“Okay,” I said, meeting her gaze. “Okay.”
She nodded and stepped back into place, leaving me alone in the cir
cle. I was so tempted to send another message to Janet, but I didn’t. Instead, I stood there silently, waiting. What was next, a flood? Or a landslide?
Dan and Janet were looking at each other. I guessed, from their expressions, that Dan was annoyed with his mother and she wasn’t all that happy with him, either. But I would bet that witch or no witch, the power was on Dan’s side of the equation. That’s probably the reason she turned and addressed me.
“You do not claim to be a witch of the elements?” Janet asked.
“I don’t claim to be a witch at all,” I said.
“Yet you have certain powers. What are they?”
She really shouldn’t have asked that question.
Stretching out my hand, I sent her just a little zap, aimed at her feet. I truly didn’t mean to make her dance. But the extemporaneous Flamenco and her rather colorful language almost made me smile.
“I can do that,” I said. I almost wanted to ask, childishly, “Can you?” I refrained.
She glared at me. I wasn’t the one who made her swear like a sailor. Even Dan looked startled.
“What else?” she asked.
All of the other witches were watching us. They had been for the last few minutes, as if our byplay was something unusual. Evidently, Janet normally made mincemeat of her opponents, and I didn’t fool myself that we were anything but adversaries. I had the feeling that Janet would just as soon leave me out in the desert for the buzzards to find. Right now I wasn’t feeling all that friendly about her, either.
“I guess we’ll just have to find out, won’t we?” she finally said.
She clapped her hands and the shutters, invisible until now, moved over the stained glass, plunging the ballroom into darkness.
I wasn’t getting a good feeling about this.
As if they’d practiced, the witches began murmuring, words that sounded like a chant, a spell that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and my lizard brain go on full alert.
