Hartman House

by A L Wright

  Dreven was by her side in an instant, offering her his arm. She turned to her friends first, and thanked them all for their support, then let Dreven lead her away.

  ---

  At midnight, they stood together on the back porch and watched as the witches bound Guy’s power. They had bound and gagged him, which was good since he was attempting to yell and disturb their ritual.

  Once done and all fell quiet, Rodelle strode forward past all the witches and stopped in front of Guy. She reached up and placed a howlite stone hung on a silver chain around his neck. Once placed, the anger left his eyes and he looked almost calm.

  Her part done, she quickly turned around and left. She never wanted to see him again.

  Chapter 14

  Life had returned to a sense of normalcy around the House. No one spoke of Guy. Everyone had felt betrayed by him and were more than happy to free their minds of him.

  She and Dreven spent a little more time together each day. She would have loved to spend much more, but his duties had him busy. And recently, her orders from Leticia for spell stones had increased. She had done enough of them by now that she was starting to see a little money come in from the sales.

  The spare moments she had were spent in studying the nexus points around the House. She had studied three of the four points quite thoroughly and had only the fourth one left to spend time with.

  And it didn’t hurt that connecting with those power nodes helped amp up her magic with the stones as well. She was able to complete spell stones faster and faster, as she practiced more. The more powerful spell stones that she created for herself she would bring to the nodes with her, to draw upon the raw energies within them.

  And still no one had approached her about starting up her studies. She figured that was also because of Guy. But really, she appreciated being given more time to study the House spell and just work on herself.

  Her friends were awesome enough to just act like everything was normal. Like nothing bad had happened. That was the best medicine, really.

  That and Dreven.

  She had remembered just a few snippets, here and there, of their shared past. She didn’t force it, though. Rodelle was pretty sure she didn’t want to remember it all. There also was the fear that if she remembered that life, she would remember them all. And that thought was pretty scary.

  At the moment she was sitting on her bed writing out the details she had figured out about the house spell so far. She hadn't yet studied the last nexus point. It had been difficult to get out of the house at midnight lately.

  But she was confident that she knew enough of the spell at this point that she could catalog the important details and fill in with the minor ones once she had a chance to visit the midnight node.

  Her notes included time tables; the times each node became active and how long it lasted. It also included the pattern and colors of the first three. The morning node was yellow; the noon node was red, and the nightfall node was blue. The color of the midnight node was still a mystery.

  One she hoped to solve very soon.

  A knock at her door startled her.

  “Who’s there?” She called.

  “It is only me.” Dreven’s amazing accent always made her heart jump into her throat.

  Rodelle jumped up off the bed and hurried to open the door. Dreven was leaning against the door frame, smiling.

  “What has you smiling already?”

  “I could hear how quickly you came to the door. I thought maybe you were happy to see me.” Dreven continued smiling at her.

  “Oh, um, yeah.” Rodelle had to laugh out loud at herself. “I am always happy to see you.”

  “How are you doing? You seem to be doing better, back to normal perhaps.”

  Rodelle scrunched her nose at him. What was he getting at?

  “Ah, well I just mean that you seem to be diving back into your normal activities and I was just hoping that you are feeling more like yourself again.” Dreven had stopped smiling, and now had a confused look on his face. Like he had something on his mind but was having a hard time putting words to it.

  “Dreven, dear, whatever it is on your mind, spit it out.”

  “I am not the best communicator.” He said to her as he finally walked into her room, shutting the door behind him. He stepped close to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “I just need to know if you feel safe, comfortable, again.”

  “I do. I feel pretty good. It’s sweet of you to be concerned.”

  “Good. Because I was going to have to feel guilty if you were not.”

  “What? Why would you feel guilty?”

  Rodelle barely had the chance to finish her question before Dreven pulled her fully against him, bent his head down and kissed her. She melted against him and opened her mouth to invite him in.

  Taking full advantage of her invitation, he swept his tongue inside her mouth. Their kiss lasted several moments before he pulled back, breathing heavily. Dreven stared into her eyes and smiled.

  “I was going to have to feel guilty for doing that. But my sweet, I could not wait any longer to taste your lips again. I could only hope that you would forgive me.” He rested his forehead against hers.

  Rodelle’s heart was beating like a hummingbird’s wings. That was the first time he had kissed her since the night she stayed with him after he rescued her from Guy. She almost laughed out loud thinking of how this vicious creature of the dark was such a gentleman to her.

  “Oh please, don’t feel guilty. I’ve been waiting for you to do that for a while now.”

  “Good.” He pulled his head back from her and grabbed her around the waist, hugging her against him. “Your eyes are incredibly dark, by the way.” He chuckled.

  “Well, let me tell you…you think you can tell my moods by my eyes now? It’s obvious how you feel. I mean I can feel it pretty solidly against my belly,” Rodelle stated.

  Dreven suddenly pulled away from her, looking embarrassed.

  “Oh, don’t be silly. I may be a virgin, but I know all about the birds and the bees.” Rodelle laughed at him.

  “Well as intriguing as these birds and bees sound, I did actually come here for a second reason.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes. It seems that Dirk came back earlier with the news that hunters are closing in on the wolf village. We are forming up in the back gardens to head out soon.” Dreven said.

  “Oh no! Who all is going?”

  “All of us who have been on a mission before. We need all the help we can get with this rescue. There are a lot of wolves in the village to get out.”

  “So, I can go?” Rodelle was suddenly scared. She had managed a rescue before but that was small time. This had the very possibility of being a complete nightmare. So many to help and not nearly enough time or enough of them to make it an easy rescue.

  “Dreven, could you go on down and get all the info you can. I will be down in a few minutes.” She immediately turned to her vanity that held all her spell stones and her newly written grimoire of spells.

  “Morgain wanted me to bring you down.” Dreven put his hand on her shoulder.

  She reached up and squeezed his hand. “Tell her I will be down shortly. We need to figure out if she has any sort of plan. I have some ideas, but I need to get some things together first.”

  He was hesitant to walk away from her, she could tell. She turned around and hugged him tightly. His arms came around her and rubbed up and down her back.

  Looking up at him, she smiled. Dreven kissed her lightly before letting go.

  “Ok. Please do not take long. Dirk is pacing and being very belligerent. I can only handle so much of him.” He winked at her then turned and walked out of her room.

  Wow, she thought after he walked out the door. This had come up very suddenly. She had thought of a few things that she could give to the rescue team for this, but the possibility of her going made the plans change a bit.

  She rifled through her boxes of stones l
ooking for what she needed. She packed all her Iolites, a few pouches of Jaspers, several black onyxes and cat’s eyes. Opening her grimoire, she ran through the pages, stopping here and there reading spells and committing them to memory. She had several spells for obscuring, illusions and even one for invisibility. Most of the stones she carried had those spells attached, but in case they got lost she needed to be fully prepared.

  She flipped a few more pages in and stopped at a spell for putting people to sleep. She didn’t want to hurt anyone. Not like last time. But putting someone to sleep, she could do that.

  She snapped the book shut and grabbed her shoulder bag to shove all her stones inside. Once she had them all packed, she took a deep breath and rushed out of her room, down the stairs and out of the house to the back gardens.

  There was a high level of nervousness and confusion in the atmosphere as the witches all chattered with each other and the wolves and vampires stalked around looking impatient. Dirk was in the middle of the yard, animatedly yelling as usual. Morgain had just turned away from him and said something to Alarin. The vampire leader threw his hands in the air, turned around and stalked away.

  She looked around for Dreven but couldn’t immediately spot him. The level of chaos in the yard was just too much. How were they supposed to pull off such a large-scale rescue while acting like this?

  Finally feeling like something had to be done, Rodelle placed two fingers to her lips and whistled loudly.

  Witches and vampires swung themselves around to face her, and wolves covered their ears against the sudden high-pitched noise. Morgain and Dirk were looking at her in confusion and Alarin had stopped walking to turn and look at her.

  Having everyone’s eyes on her suddenly was nerve wracking, and her heart sped up and her breath caught in her throat. Just when she thought she was sure to have a heart attack, she felt Dreven come up beside her and take her hand.

  His presence calmed her mind, relaxed her body and gave her the confidence to speak.

  “I’m not sure what the craziness is all about out here, but it seems pretty pointless to me. I’m sure the leaders have been formulating a plan for extraction. Rather than argue about it, we should act. As a team.” She opened her senses to trace the auras of everyone around her.

  “We cannot afford to try to make our personal marks as a rescuer with this mission.” She looked pointedly at a small group of wolves whose auras betrayed their selfish notions. “We also need to be on the same page. The leaders will be calling the shots on this mission and we need to listen. Simple as that.” Having said her piece, she was feeling shy again.

  Morgain had been staring at her the whole time, a very amused look on her face. After Rodelle was done speaking, the Head Witch spoke up.

  “Thank you, Rodelle. I ask that everyone listens to her advice, because it is sound. For us to be successful tonight we need to act together.” She turned to Alarin. “Master Alarin will be scouting the premises once we get there, along with his choice of scouts. Dirk will lead the point team that will initiate contact with the elders of the village. The rest of the witches will be split into two teams. One team will watch and protect the vehicles, while the other team observes and oversees the extraction.”

  Morgain turned back to Rodelle. “Rodelle will be leading the witches’ efforts for both teams. You will all listen to her instructions and any who don’t will face the consequences once we return. This rescue needs to be quick, concise and coordinated or we will not be successful.”

  Rodelle was frozen in shock. She hadn’t spoken up so she could interject her ideas or force her way into a leadership role. She wasn’t so sure that she was ready to lead anyone.

  “Let’s all split into our teams and board the buses. It’s a few hours’ drive and we need to go now so we can do this while still under the cover of darkness.” Alarin shouted, then started to walk towards the west side of the house where the garages were.

  Light chatter picked up around her but was nothing like the confusion she had walked into earlier. Rodelle was still in shock and unsure how to proceed. Dreven squeezed her hand and led her away towards the buses.

  Chapter 15

  Dreven had managed to herd herself and all the other witches quickly onto one bus, and then they were off and driving before she even realized it. She knew she needed to get ahold of herself and start formulating some plans. She was just so afraid of failing. Failing the wolves that needed their rescue and of failing the witches who had been ordered to follow her.

  “You can do this, Rodelle. Tap into your soul, your past self can help. You were a princess once, destined to be a queen. You are a natural leader.” Dreven whispered to her from his spot on the seat next to her.

  She closed her eyes. She still didn’t want to remember her past lives, but she could really use some help feeling like a leader. Running from hunters for years had taught her to stand up to people, not for people. She breathed in and out steadily, concentrating on dredging up what she needed from her past.

  Opening her eyes and standing up, she turned to face the rest of the witches on the bus.

  “I know you all don’t have any reason to want to follow me in this. I’m the new kid in the House still. I haven’t proven myself to any of you. But I ask you all to put any doubts aside and help me make this a successful mission. There are a lot of lives hanging on our ability to work together.” Rodelle looked around and saw that she had everyone’s attention. “There are five buses, so I will need five volunteers to stay and watch them. I will need a team of ten to watch the backs of the extraction team that Dirk will be leading. Those ten will be along the pathway that leads from the buses to the village. I will need another team of five that will fan out and be the eyes between us and the scout team. I will leave it up to you all to decide which role you want to play. I won’t order any of you.”

  She drew in a deep breath and turned to sit back down. Before she did, though, she heard Shar’s voice call out to her, causing her to turn back towards them.

  “Rodelle, you have my word that I will follow your orders. Alayna and Mary Ellen’s too.” The other two witches nodded their agreement. “I think we all saw the wisdom you showed when handling Guy’s trial and punishment. Most of us know the part you played in the rescue of those two vampire boys. You've shown more natural aptitude with magic than most of us have. We will follow you. Here or anywhere.”

  The rest of the witches on the bus murmured their agreement to follow her lead as well. Rodelle was struck speechless so she nodded her thanks and sat back down quickly. Having the full support of everyone was amazing. And intimidating. But she was determined to make this work.

  ---

  Dreven could not help but to be completely amazed by Rodelle. She was channeling her inner leader as she addressed the rest of her kind. Seeing them respond to her was incredible and made his heart swell with love for her. She had no idea how amazing she was.

  After she sat back down, he pulled her close to him and she rested her head against his shoulder. He closed his eyes and stroked her hair, and almost wished that the bus would keep moving forever so they could there stay in that moment.

  But unfortunately, it did stop moving. Their bus pulled up next to the others and shut down the engine. They all streamed off the buses and started forming up their teams.

  He watched as the witches volunteered themselves for the various assignments Rodelle had laid out. Before Dirk's or Alarin's teams were even ready, she had five witches each guarding a bus and the other two teams split up and waiting orders.

  Dreven walked over to her as she handed a black onyx to each person guarding a bus. She was instructing them on the invocation to trigger the invisibility spell attached to the stones. They would hide the buses while everyone else was off to the village and drop the spell as they came back.

  He then watched her turn to the team that would be along the path to the village and hand them all Iolites. Dreven was quite familiar with the spells attach
ed to those stones. They wouldn’t reveal themselves until Dirk's team brought the wolves out of the village to the buses.

  Lastly, she turned to the scout team and handed them all Iolites as well as cat’s eye stones, while keeping one for herself. She also handed them bags that had several stones in them. Must be her jasper bags that contained protection spells. He sure hoped she kept one of those for herself as well.

  Once she was done distributing items and orders and words of encouragement, he walked up in front of her and lifted her chin, so he could peer into her eyes. Her eyes were a swirling blend of their normal color and the rich brown they turned when she used magic.

  “Careful love, magic is pouring from you in waves. It is much more than normal.” He said to her.

  “How can you tell? I’ve got a shield stone that should be hiding it.”

  “Your eyes hide nothing, Rodelle. Just please promise me you will be careful.” He leaned down and kissed her firmly.

  “I promise. And you promise me that as well. I would like us to return to the House in the same shape we came out here in. I plan on exploring your body at some point, and I can’t have you losing any parts of it before then.” She had pulled back just a mere inch and spoke against his lips.

  Her words had an immediate effect on him and he had to pull away from her. “And now your eyes are showing just how much you want me.”

  She rose up on her tiptoes and kissed him again. “I don’t care who knows, Dreven.” She winked at him and walked away towards the group of witches that would be scouting.

  Damn. It was a good thing he respected her virtues, or they just may have had to miss out on this rescue to find a spot in the woods, so he could lay her body out under the moonlight.

  He finally forced himself to look away from her and walk over to join Alarin as the vampire leader made his way out to scout the perimeter.

  ---

  She had to force Dreven to the back of her mind, so she could focus on the tasks ahead of her and the rest of the witches. Alarin had his team ready to begin scouting and at Rodelle's signal, her team of scouts followed closely behind as they split apart from the main group and slipped quietly into the trees.