She finally turned her eyes away from the windows, and leaned her arms on the marble top of the island. “So dish.” She said, her jade eyes alight with curiosity.
“Shouldn’t we be concentrating on what happened today? I mean, homicidal vampire, super powers from out of the blue, trashed house…any of this ring a bell?”
She stuck her tongue out at me and I laughed for the first time since this morning.
“I think we should wait for Gareth to come back. Four heads are better than three.” Teagan said, moving towards the Sub Zeros. “Do you think he would mind?” She pointed at them and I shook my head.
“No please, help yourselves. Gareth’s casa es mi casa es su casa. He might be awhile coming back if you want to wait for him.” I said to her as she stood in front of the open fridge doors.
“Where did he go?” She came over with an apple in her hand, a huge bite already missing.
“Umm, he just had to step out for minute.” I had no idea how to handle this. Gee, where did your vampire boyfriend go? Oh, he just stepped out to kill Bambi, he must be hungry; not the kind of situation I was accustomed to, but Harley caught the gist.
“I suspect he’s doing what you’re doing.” She said to Teagan with a head tilt in the direction of the apple.
“Oh. Well that makes sense.” She replied with a shrug, taking the stool next to me.
“So, dish.” Harley repeated.
“No, guys, I don’t kiss and tell and besides, I have more on my mind than that.”
Harley turned up her nose and said in a long southern drawl, “The boy must not know what he’s doing if three days of loving doesn’t take priority in your mind.”
I blushed, spitting out the gulp of water I had just taken.
“That’s not what I said. I just think it’s private.”
“C’mon, we need to live vicariously through you. Neither one of us is dating anyone right now, and it’s a dry season.” Teagan supplied, pushing the matter.
I called to Gareth in desperation and with a chuckle he answered me. I’m on my way back.
“Okay, I’ll give you this much, and then don’t ask me anything else. It was the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and if you were curious as to why I’m not a puddle of jangling nerves over everything that’s happened over the past twelve hours, he’s why. As long as he’s with me, and we’re together, I can face anything.”
After a beat, Teagan snorted. “Wow, did you just come across like a sappy love story.”
“Well, you asked. I never said I was good with words. Look, it was wonderful, and at the risk of sounding like a sloppy love story, he’s everything I could’ve wanted in a lover and more.”
“I said sappy, not sloppy.”
“Teagan!” I exclaimed, exasperation in my voice.
“Okay, okay, chill!” She held her hands up in surrender, her eyes wide.
“I think it’s wonderful.” Harley put in, reaching across the island and touching my hand. I sent her a grateful smile.
Gareth came through the doors just then, a cold wind following him in. I sent him an even bigger smile. His black hair was tousled from the wind, but other than that he showed no signs of having been in the woods. His white shirt was immaculate and not even a trace of dirt marred his loafers. I couldn’t eat without dropping something on me. It thrilled me to see the ice-blue of his eyes and I wished he didn’t have to wear those stupid contacts.
As long as the sun is down, I won’t wear the contacts.
Good. Come here quick, save me from girl talk!
I thought you would like a minute or two of girl talk.
His voice in my head was amused.
Not when they want to know about your prowess as a lover.
He laughed out loud at that, prompting Teagan to grumble, “Secrets don’t make friends.”
“I think I’m allowed to have a private conversation with my lady.” With his brogue it came out as m’lady, and if Harley could’ve swooned, she would have.
“Oh God, I don’t think I can take this. You are too good-looking for my heart.” Harley patted her chest above her heart and I rolled my eyes.
“Can we please go on to something else? Like do you two think that my rage unleashed this power, or whatever it is, inside me?” I took another long drink from my water as Gareth came to stand behind me. He placed his hands on my shoulders, the long fingers warm as they started to rub the tension out gently, and my eyes closed in ecstasy. The tension drained away with the press of his fingers, and my head fell back. I opened my eyes and looked up at him, and he smiled down at me.
“Feeling better yet?” his voice was soft and relaxed.
“All kinds of better, thanks.” I purred.
“Ahem.”
I lifted my head, remembering that there were two other people in the room at the polite cough that Harley gave.
“Sorry, lost in the moment.” I mumbled, feeling another blush coming on.
“We gathered. Anyway, yes, we both think that the depth of the rage in you, at that moment, released the dormant powers that you posses.” Harley commented, getting up to get her own bottle of water out of the fridge. She wandered around the living room and kitchen, speaking as she walked.
“I can’t read the depth of your power and I’ve said before that you are a strong sensitive, but you’re going to have to explore this and find out.”
“That can’t be safe for her to do it alone. She’ll need direction, guidance.” Gareth put in, moving away from me and pacing in front of the fireplace. Absently I flicked a hand towards it and the fire blazed up, eliciting a glance from all three of them. I just shrugged, bringing my hands up to my shoulders in a shrug.
“It’s the new and improved me.”
“What else can you do that’s new and improved?” This from Teagan.
“I can only tell you what’s new as of tonight. Everything that I can do, it’s like second nature. I don’t even have to think about it. Take the fire for instance; I did it this morning too, but I had to think about it, and let the fire build in me. Just now… no thought, just a flick of my wrist and the word ‘fire’ in my head, like a command.”
“What else?” Gareth prompted and I went on.
“I can see emotions, and feel them.”
“How do you mean?” Harley asked, curling up on the leather couch and pulling a throw over her legs.
“Well, when you were listening to me tell you what happened today, and you were feeling worried and angry, I could sense that, and saw colors in my mind. The red of anger, the dark blue of worry, but when it got too much for me, I just…shut it off. And I don’t even have to think about blocking all of you from my thoughts. You just can’t read them now unless I want you to.”
“Can you tell what else she can do?” Gareth looked to Harley, but she shook her head.
“Even if I got in her head, I can’t sense what she is if I don’t have the same power, and although I’m by nature a sensitive and can read minds, everything else I do is the craft. It took me years to control fire without conscious thought and to cast a spell I need my books and athame and everything else.”
He looked at Teagan, and she shook her head also.
“Same with me. I can control the weather, and I feel that in her too, but otherwise I’m a carbon copy of Harley.”
Oh great, I could control the weather too? Maybe I could just call down lightning and strike myself dead.
“I know someone who could help. I’ve known him a long time and he’s sort of an expert in these matters.” Gareth ran a hand through his hair, and then rubbed his neck. I thought that was a curious human gesture, meant to alleviate stress, but his muscles couldn’t possibly be tense being atrophied as they were. He caught my eyes, and I tilted my head.
Tense?
Some old habits die hard.
“Who is he? Can he be trusted?” Teagan asked, popping off her stool and moving to a wing chair next to the fire.
“He can be t
rusted. He saved my life a few years ago from a werewolf who was a little angry that I had appropriated his meal.” Gareth said wryly.
“Is that a fancy way of saying you fought over food?” Harley laughed but Gareth waved off the statement.
“I trust him. He won’t lead Padraigan here, has almost as much reason to hate him as I do.” A troubled frown marred his smooth brow, as though he remembered something he would rather not. Something about his friend maybe?
“I have a question. What can he do for me? Can he teach me how to use what I have? Can he tell me what I have?”
“That was more than one question.”
“You’re such a smart ass Teagan, but I love you anyway.” I smiled at her and she smiled back; at least I was honest.
“Yes to all three.” Gareth told me, moving back to my side at the island. He dug in his pocket and brought out his cell phone, flipped it open and dialed a number.
“Noah? It’s Gareth. Fine, thanks. I need a favor.” Gareth listened to whatever Noah was saying, and then laughed.
“I know I still owe you, and I will repay. No, I have a situation that I need some help with.”
“I’m a ‘situation’ now?” I frowned up at him, but he shook his head slightly, whether in response to what was being said on the other line or to me I couldn’t tell.
“When can you be over? Well, tonight would have been better but if first thing tomorrow is the best you can do, that’ll work.” His eyes were laughing, but there was derision in his voice. A guy thing, I guessed.
“Okay, see you then.” He snapped the phone shut and placed it on the island.
“He can’t make it until tomorrow, but he’ll be here at first light. Did you celebrate?” Gareth asked Harley, who shook her head.
“No, we were going to go back to the woods if you didn’t mind before heading home.”
“By all means, use the wood. And you can stay the night. You might want to be here when Noah gets here in the morning.”
I was lost. What the hell were they talking about? Teagan saw my lost expression and took pity on me.
“It’s the second of February.”
“And this has significance why?” I asked, my expression becoming more lost.
“It’s Imbolc.” She continued at my blank stare, “It’s essentially a festival for the Maiden, for spring. We have so much to teach you.” She shook her head sadly.
“Is Noah a witch? Is that why he couldn’t make it tonight, because he’s celebrating Imbolc?” Harley leveled her gaze at Gareth. I was a bit surprised to see him drop his eyes from her stare and look at the floor, as though she were trying to read his mind.
“Oh no.” she breathed, shaking her head, her gaze turning into a glare.
“What?” I asked, confused again. It seemed I was perpetually in this state when I was around Harley and Teagan.
“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me. Gareth!” Teagan exclaimed, giving him her own glare.
“Would someone please clue me in?”
“How can you read my thoughts?” he demanded, feigning frustration. He was wary though, not frustrated. I could feel it on him in shades of gray. I reached out to him, touched his hand.
“They can because you’re connected to me. Although I didn’t think they still could, since they don’t have ready access to my thoughts anymore.”
“Remind me to keep my thoughts closed around them.” He muttered under his breath, along with a swear word that had to be in Gaelic.
“We don’t need a sorcerer here, Gareth. They’re all cocky, arrogant, smug bastards who think they’re better than the rest of us.” Teagan came off the chair, her turn to pace in front of the fire, her hands shoved deep in her pockets.
“I think that Anna is a sorcerer, Teagan. It’s best to be sure, don’t you agree?” He spoke quietly, raised his head to look at her. She held his eyes defiantly, and I could tell she didn’t like the thought.
“I think he’s right, T. It makes the most sense. She can do everything that we can without the years it took us.” Harley agreed with Gareth and I looked at them, wondering, for the umpteenth time that night, what the hell they were talking about.
“What’s the difference between a witch and a sorcerer?” I asked, looking at each of them in turn, my gaze resting on Gareth. He motioned with his hand for one of the girls to answer me.
Teagan sighed and blew her breath out explosively. “The difference between a witch and a sorcerer is that a witch practices her craft, has to learn it, the spells, the rituals, everything. We apprentice with elders, usually joining a coven when we’re young. It’s a religion, but also a way of life. We respect the Gods and Goddesses, ask them their favor and we’re rewarded with magickal powers, but to never do harm. A true witch never uses his or her power for harm. Sorcerers are born, they come by their powers naturally, and they do everything that we do, and more. They can call the weather, they can speak to the animals, they cast circles and perform rituals without needing the things we need, like the athame, herbs, stones, yadda yadda yadda. Some sorcerers use those things for added power, but that just makes them stronger; without them, their power is equal to any witch, even an elder.”
I took a minute to digest this, Teagan’s words reverberating in my head. Could I be a sorcerer born? I could remember always being different as a child, what with seeing ghosts and sensing that there were more things on this earth than anyone had any idea of, but no one in my family or my parents’ families had been the least magickal, or so I knew.
Everyone was quiet, giving me the time to think. I closed my eyes, deepened my breathing and opened myself up, carefully keeping all thoughts of our impending problem out of my head, although I probably could’ve had his MySpace page in my head and not drawn his attention. I had no idea what I was looking for, but I could feel something in me, like a simmering cauldron of power waiting to be unleashed. I didn’t want to probe too deep, not without this Noah person being here. I opened my eyes again and trained them on Harley.
“Why can’t you help me?”
She shrugged helplessly. “If you are a sorcerer, and I agree with Gareth on this, you are much stronger than me. Anything that you did, I couldn’t contain or deflect it.”
“Can’t the two of you together help?” I wanted them to teach me, and I couldn’t hide the desperation in my voice. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to be a sorcerer, or sorceress, whatever.
“A sorcerer has untold power, Anna, and all of them are raised from an early age to harness that power and control it. You have gone twenty-seven years without even realizing what you are, and it could be very dangerous without another sorcerer, a powerful one, to help you. This is why I called Noah.” Gareth took my hand, and the touch of his warm skin on mine calmed me, while at the same time sending the familiar electric surge of longing that he brought to me.
“Okay, I trust you. I know you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me, and if you think this guy is the way to go, then he’s the one.” I said, leaning my head into his side so that he brought an arm around my shoulders.
“What’s his last name?” Harley asked the question but Teagan didn’t look like she wanted to hear it.
“Jacobs. Do you know him?” He asked at Teagan’s groan.
“Not personally, no, but his reputation precedes him. He’s from one of the oldest families around, all the way back to the Witch Trials. I think he’s the cockiest of them all. Great, so not only are we bringing in a sorcerer, but we getting the worst of the bunch of them.” She rolled her eyes theatrically, bringing a smile to my face.
“This is ridiculous. I am just trying to protect Anna. I don’t want anything to go wrong here and if you don’t like it, then you’ll have to lump it.” His voice was stern, his scowl black.
“Whoa, whoa, let’s not show teeth okay? I know why he has to come, and you’re right; I don’t like it. I hate that we can’t help the way we want to, I hate that we don’t have the power to help her through this.” She finished, her
voice diminishing as she spoke until she sounded much younger than she was. I slid off my stool and went to her, gave her a hug.
“Teagan, you’re helping me just by being here. Both of you.” I glanced over to Harley to make sure she understood, and she nodded, that serene look on her face again.
“T, she’s going to need us for more than just learning her power. She’ll need us to keep her in line and her head from getting too big, since she’s one of those know-it-all sorcerers.”
Teagan nodded and stepped away from me. “Plus, you’ll need help with this Padraigan dude. Have you two figured out why he was so hot to fry you both today?”
“No, although I have a theory.” I offered.
“Let’s hear it, then.” Gareth said as I went into the kitchen to get yet another bottle of water. Just then my stomach rumbled.
“Can we eat first? I never got my executive lunch today, and the stomach, it is protesting.”
“I’ve already eaten, but you three go on.” Gareth smirked.
“Food jokes from a vampire. Cute.” I smiled at him and he sketched a bow.
After the three mortals ate, Teagan teasing Gareth with food, to which he turned up his long nose at. We moved back into the living room, Harley and Teagan in the leather club chairs and Gareth and I sitting next to each other, our legs pressing together. It seemed that neither one of us wanted to be very far from the other.
“So, what’s the theory?” Harley asked without preamble.
Now that we were all gathered, I wasn’t sure where to start. Without proper knowledge of the forces involved, I wasn’t sure if I was just grasping at straws.
“Well, he’s angry enough to come out into the open and come after us, or maybe angry isn’t the word, but something has brought him out, something from the very beginning, from the day I met you.” I looked at Gareth. He nodded slowly, motioning me to continue.
“Was it you that first day at the office? In the parking lot after work.”
“No, what are you talking about?” He asked, and I could see he was agitated.
Eternity Page 19
