Chasing the Witch (Boston Witches)

by Jessica Gibson

  “I’m sorry you’re upset. I think it’s partly my fault that she’s leaving, though; I told her she can’t play both sides forever.” Jilly glared at him. “I was upset too, Jill. I’m sorry.”

  She put her head in her hands for a moment. “I know. I’m not mad at you. I just hate this. I just got her back, Will. Now I’ve lost her all over again. She’s clearly choosing sides; I just don’t understand how she can choose him over us. There is always a choice, whether you’re marked or not. I understand the compulsion to be with your match, but you have a choice. It’s not written in stone. That reminds me, I spoke with him a few minutes ago. He came to me in a dream. He wants Sabine. He won’t stop until he gets her. Oh, and he said something very disturbing. He said this isn’t the first time he’s gotten out of his tomb in all these years.”

  William went pale. “That can’t be true. Why would he ever go back in if he could get out?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s a very disturbing thought. I hope he was lying.”

  William was visibly shaken but he tried to dismiss it.

  “I’m going to go talk to Kat. Are you okay here?”

  Jilly nodded. “I’ll be fine. I’m past the freak out portion of emotions, now.”

  He gave her a quick kiss and went to find Kat and Alex. They were in the study with books and laptops opened all around them. “Any progress?” he asked as he came in.

  “I think we may have something, but it’s going to be really risky,” Alex replied. “We’re going to have to try and figure out which wraiths were called and break the contract. Sometimes if something else is offered to them, they will cease their hunt. The risky part is summoning them. They’re so unstable. You never know what they will do in a given situation.”

  “How can we know which ones were called?” William asked.

  “We need to do a tracer spell. Any wraith that has been near Hannah will be immediately visible to us as soon as the spell is complete.”

  William nodded. “I’ll ask Jilly to help. She’ll want something to do right now.”

  Caroline was packing. She haphazardly threw clothes into suitcases without bothering to fold them. Tears were blurring her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. The room she had always loved suddenly seemed alien to her. She felt like a stranger in her own home.

  Closing up the bags, she made her first trip down to her car; silently praying that she didn’t run into Jilly. She couldn’t bear another argument. Luckily, she made it out to her car without seeing anyone and quickly shoved the first bag into the trunk. She ran back up to her room and grabbed the remaining two suitcases before fleeing down the back stairs into the kitchen.

  William was standing at the sink and he turned to face her when she came in. “I see you’ve made your choice then.” His voice was flat and emotionless.

  “I didn’t want it to be this way. I didn’t want to choose. You made me do this.” The tears that had been threatening to fall finally had their way. “I can’t help how I feel, Will.” She searched his face for understanding, but found anger and sadness instead.

  “I love you as my own sister, Caroline, and it hurts me to see you making the wrong choice. But I cannot have you playing both sides. I will not allow you to hurt your sister and I will not let you bring us down with you. If this is your choice, then go and live it.” He didn’t wait for a response. He turned and left Caroline standing alone with her bags.

  She wiped her eyes with her sleeves, picked up her bags and went down to the car. She threw her bags in the car and shut the trunk. She felt drained.

  Caroline jumped when she saw Jilly standing behind her. She had walked up while Caroline was putting her stuff away.

  “Please don’t go,” Jilly pleaded, tears streaming down her face. “I just got you back, Caroline. I can’t lose you, again.”

  “I can’t stay, Jill, you know I can’t. William’s right. I can’t play both sides and I can’t hurt you anymore. Seeing me every day won’t help either of us.” She pulled her sister close to her. “I love you, Jill.” She let go abruptly, ran around to the driver’s side door and jumped in. She waved goodbye and sped off.

  Caroline watched Jilly in the rear view mirror until she disappeared. She drove on autopilot to the cabin in the woods and when she pulled up, Patrick was waiting outside for her. She leapt out of the car and ran into his waiting arms.

  “It’s okay, love. Everything will be better from now on, I promise,” he whispered into her ear.

  William was so angry, he was practically seeing red. He calmly changed into shorts and a t-shirt and slipped out the back door to go for a run. He took off at a full sprint, not going anywhere in particular. He felt himself start to calm down as he moved through the trees in the quiet morning air. He started thinking about the events that had led him to his present state.

  He was so angry with Caroline. He couldn’t understand how she could make such a stupid choice. With everything that she knew about Patrick, she went ahead and fell in love with him, anyway. William ran for over an hour without breaking a sweat. He ended up in a part of the forest he was not familiar with. He slowed to a walk and looked around for a while. He heard the snapping of twigs off to his left and he was instantly at attention. William whirled around and found himself face-to-face with his brother.

  William nodded at him. “I knew I’d see you again, today. We need to have this out.”

  Patrick laughed. “You always were smart, William.” He swung and punched him square in the nose. William’s head rocked back, blood pouring down his face. Everything went red as he launched himself at Patrick, taking them both down to the ground. He sat on his stomach and rained down a series of blows to his face. Patrick threw him off, and jumped to his feet, quickly.

  They circled each other for a while, each of them sizing the other up, trying to find a weakness. Patrick made the first move. He lunged at William and threw him against a tree. William felt a pop as his shoulder dislocated, but he ignored the pain and popped it back into place before running at his brother. He dealt Patrick some savage punches to the kidneys and stomach before moving up to his face. William felt satisfied as he heard the crunch of bone when he punched his brother in the nose.

  Patrick stepped back, holding his nose as blood poured out of it. William wiped his sleeve across his face, trying to stop the flow of blood from his own broken nose. Both men glared at each other, but neither seemed ready or willing to make another move.

  “You need to leave, Patrick. Let Caroline go and get out of Boston. I don’t care what you do anymore. I just want you gone. As long as you can behave yourself and stay under the radar, we won’t have a problem.” William spat out blood and sat on a fallen log.

  Patrick sat across from him. “Caroline is free to do as she wishes, William. She chose to be with me, so get over it. As for leaving Boston, I might just do that after I take care of some loose ends. I’ll be seeing you, brother.” He got up and melted back into the trees. William sat on the log for a while, trying to gear himself up for the long run home.

  Jilly was in the kitchen looking through her grimoire when William came through the door. She didn’t look up from reading; but called out, “William, is that you?”

  He made a strangled noise and collapsed into a chair. “Long run?” she asked with a laugh and then screamed when she looked up and saw him. He was covered in blood, and bruises were already forming. “What happened?” she cried as she ran over to him.

  William smiled weakly. “I’m okay. It looks way worse than it is. And not all of this is my blood; some of it is Patrick’s. We had a bit of a scuffle.”

  “Is anything broken?” Jilly asked as she gingerly probed his face with her fingers.

  “Just my nose, I think; but possibly my knuckles. Can you get Kat for me?” William asked, wincing in pain.

  Jilly nodded and ran up to get Kat. She found her in the study with Alex. “Hey, sorry to interrupt, but can I steal you for a bit, Kat?”

  “S
ure, what’s up? Did you find anything useful in your grimoire?”

  “No, not yet. It’s Will who needs you. He got into a fight with Patrick in the woods and he’s pretty banged up.”

  Kat smirked. “I knew that was coming. I’m just surprised it didn’t happen when he saw him this morning. You go on down. I need to grab my bag and I’ll be there in a minute.”

  Jilly nodded and went back down to tend to William. She found him right where she left him with Nikolai sitting across the table. They were laughing as William described the fight.

  “I’ll never understand men and their fascination with punching each other,” Jilly said with a huff, as she got some washcloths and a bowl of water together.

  “Oh, come on, Jill! You have to admit he had it coming to him,” William said.

  “Whether he did or didn’t isn’t the point. I just don’t get why it’s so amusing to you that you have a broken nose and a million bruises.” She slammed down the bowl a little too hard and the water sloshed out onto the table. She mopped it up with one of the washcloths and began the task of cleaning the blood off William’s face.

  “Where’s Kat? Isn’t she coming?” he asked, as he winced.

  “She’ll be down in a minute. Now quit acting like a baby and sit still,” Jilly ordered.

  Katya came down the stairs a few moments later carrying a black bag. She set the bag on the table in front of William and got out several jars, which she lined up on the table.

  “Do you have another bowl like the glass one you’re using there?” she asked Jilly.

  “Yeah, in the cabinet above the dishwasher,” Jilly replied.

  Katya returned with the bowl and began adding things from the jars into it. She then added some blue liquid and held her hands over the bowl chanting words Jilly didn’t understand. Katya began to glow faintly iridescent and she laid her fingers over William’s nose. There was a scraping sound as the bones knitted themselves back together. The sound made Jilly sick to her stomach. Katya moved on to his knuckles, gently laying her fingers over each one as they healed themselves. “Do you want me to do the bruises, too?”

  “No, leave them. It should be his reminder of how stupid this was,” Jilly said with a laugh.

  “Yes, if you would be so kind. I have a wicked one on my shoulder,” William said as he shot a dark look at Jilly. Ten minutes later, Katya was finished; and with the exception of the blood, William looked as good as new. “Thanks, Kat. I feel so much better.”

  “Don’t mention it; although I agree with Jilly about how stupid this was,” Katya said, shaking her head.

  William and Nikolai exchanged a look. “I guess it’s a guy thing,” William said with a shrug.

  “Whatever. I’m going back up with Alex. Nik, why don’t you come help? We could use another set of eyes,” Katya said, motioning for Nikolai to follow her.

  Nikolai groaned and got up to follow Katya. “See you guys later,” he said as they started up the stairs.

  Jilly cleaned up the mess and went back to her grimoire. “You should go get cleaned up. I don’t want you getting blood on anything,” she said dismissively.

  “Are you really mad?” he asked her, his eyebrow cocked in question.

  “Not mad; but I was definitely scared when I saw you covered in blood and bruises.” William stared to say something but Jilly silenced him with a finger. “Look, I totally understand the need to blow off some steam; I just am not a fan of the method you chose, that’s all. I know you’re pretty much un-killable, but you can still be hurt. I don’t like to see it happen. It freaks me out.”

  All of the fight left William and he kissed her softly. “I’m sorry I scared you; but it was bound to happen. There’s too much between Patrick and me. I told him he needs to leave; he can’t stay in Boston if we’re here. I don’t care what he does anymore as long as he leaves us alone and behaves himself.”

  “If he leaves, what about Caroline, Will?” Jilly said her eyes full of worry.

  “Caroline is an adult, Jilly, and she’s made her choice. If it makes you feel any better, I told him to let her go. As much as we want her to, it’s just not going to happen. She’s not going to leave him.”

  “You don’t know that,” Jilly shot back quickly.

  He looked at her. “Tell me, could you leave me?”

  “If you were a lunatic like him, you bet your ass I could and would leave you,” Jilly said indignantly.

  “Well, that’s where the two of you differ. You’re obviously stronger than she is.”

  “I don’t know, Will. I refuse to believe that this is her choice. She has to be under some sort of mind control spell or something.”

  William shook his head. “Believe it, Jill. She’s made her choice and it’s of her own free will.” He turned and walked up the stairs, laying a kiss on her forehead on his way. Jilly grabbed her grimoire and sat by the fire in one of the overstuffed chairs. She continued her search for a tracking spell to use on the wraiths.

  Hannah was bored. She had been cooped up for days, and now she wanted to go out and explore a bit. She wandered aimlessly around the house, looking through desk drawers and in cabinets. She was walking down a hallway that led toward the very back of the house when she heard a click and felt a rush of cold air hit her feet. She turned toward the noise and found a hidden door built into the wall. Hannah pushed it open to see a small room filled with books and pictures. She walked in slowly and looked around. There were some old pictures stacked against one wall; some were paintings while others were old black and white photographs.

  Hannah plopped down on the floor and began to sort through them. She started making piles, putting paintings in one stack and photographs in another. After about fifteen minutes, she sat back and wiped her hands on her jeans. She started going through the paintings. It was interesting to see the progression in the family line, from the beginning to present time. The women were so beautiful, all with either red or brown hair and in every other generation, there were a set of twins.

  Hannah moved on to the stacks of books, inspecting the covers and looking for titles. They appeared to be journals. She pulled out one at random, it looked somewhat recent. The name on the inside read Helena Proctor. Hannah wondered if that was Jilly’s mom or grandmother. She settled in and began to read.

  September 13, 1996

  It’s the week before Jilly and Caroline’s 13th birthday. I want to be excited but, truth be told, I’m more worried than anything. Being a witch is not the life I would have chosen for myself, and for that, half of me understands Caroline’s choice to not train. The other half is hurt that she could so easily turn her back on everything this family is about. Jilly, of course, couldn’t be more excited; I only worry that her power may grow too strong. I’ve been reading through the old family journals and there are a few things that concern me. All of the women talk of a set of twins whose powers will be unrivaled. I worry that it may be my girls, but no one knows when they will appear in our family line. I don’t want them to be used for their power the way so many witches have been. I want them to be normal teenagers and have boyfriends and get into trouble for sneaking out of the house! Being a witch can take away that innocence about the world that so many children have.

  Hannah stopped reading. She felt like she was invading Jilly’s privacy by reading her mother’s journal. She put it aside to give to Jilly once she was finished going through the rest of the room. She opened up an old trunk and found a small pewter cauldron and some jars of old herbs. Just as she was about to close the lid, something shiny caught her eye. At the very bottom of the trunk, half hidden by the cauldron, was a ruby necklace. She reached down and pulled it out, wiping the dust off on her shirt. It was a giant ruby, almost the size of her fist. The setting was very simple, with gold prongs holding it to the base. It hung on a simple gold chain. Hannah slipped it around her neck, enjoying the weight of the ruby on her chest. She finished looking around the room, grabbed the journal off the floor, and went
to search for Jilly.

  Hannah found Jilly, still in the kitchen, curled up in a chair. She looked up when Hannah came in and smiled. “What have you been up to all morning?”

  “I found a weird room, or rather it found me. There were all sorts of pictures and books and stuff. I found your mom’s journal. I thought you might want to have it.”

  “Really? I always wondered what happened to Mom’s stuff. I guess the house kept them safe for us. Mom always told Caroline and me that the house was as much a part of the family as we were.” She looked at Hannah more closely. “Where on earth did you get that?” She pulled the necklace free from the folds of Hannah’s sweater.

  “I found it in one of the trunks. It was under a little cauldron, tucked in with jars of old herbs and stuff. I thought it was pretty. Do you want it?” Hannah asked as she began lifting the chain over her head.

  “No, you can wear it; it looks pretty on you anyway. I’ve never seen it before. I wonder why it was in that trunk.”

  Hannah shrugged. “Any luck finding the spell?”

  “Maybe. I need to show it to Alex and see what he says. It’s not exactly what he talked about, but it could be it. What are you doing right now?”

  “Nothing. I’m so bored. I want to go out and explore the woods and stuff,” Hannah said, her tone slightly whiney.

  “I know you do, but it’s too dangerous right now with the wraiths still hanging about.”

  “I know, I know. I’m just so used to being outdoors; it’s hard to be inside so much.”

  Jilly smiled sympathetically. “Well, hopefully this will all be over soon. Can you run this up to Alex?” She gestured to the grimoire in her lap.

  “Yeah. I think I’m going to explore a bit more and see if there are any more secret rooms to find.”