“What does that mean? Are you saying I’m incompetent? Or you don’t want my help?” She adjusts her position so that she can look at me directly. And I can tell I hurt her.
Biting the bullet, I mumble, “Dar came to talk to me at the bar to tell me he knows I have been looking him up, which I haven’t, so that was real fun to hear, oh and he is getting a restraining order against me.”
“What?”
“Yeah, your background check must have alerted him.” Against my original thought, I am not as angry after confessing that.
“It shouldn’t have. I was very careful, but what do you mean a restraining order? That doesn’t make any sense. He is the one coming into the bar you work at, you are not going out of the way to go to him.” Cory bowed her head and her eyes glossed a bit. She’s crunching the information.
“I know! But yeah that’s not all.” I am trying to keep her from getting caught in her thoughts so she can hear the rest. If I lose her to her head I don’t know how long it will be until she comes back out again.
“Crap. What else?” She asks, but she is still looking away from me.
“When I went to the storage room he followed me in there. And my magic turned on me when I… lost it, kind of. It, my fire, went inside him and then made me obey him.”
Cory sits up straight and looks excited. Ugh. “Oh whoa. What did you have to do?”
“Unfreeze everything I had frozen and put it back together. But the point is, I was a slave to him. It was awful. I was in so much pain I can’t even describe it. So unless you know what to do about that, then I doubt you can help.”
Tilting her head to the side she says, “You’re a Carver. You can do magic that confounds everyone else. I’m sure your magic can fix it, but, I am also sure it’s going to take me to figure out how.”
I can always trust my sister to have complete faith in her abilities, “Is that so?”
“You hide from your magic, Beth. Don’t try and deny it. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t know how to do half the stuff you can do,” she says in a matter of fact tone.
I turn down the heater because it feels like we are in the valley of suns. “It’s still my magic. And it’s my ass if I get caught.”
Cory flaps the air near her ear. “Puleese. Have you been caught yet? No. So just trust me for once.”
I hit the steering wheel again. “I have trusted you from the beginning! Don’t act like I don’t trust you and let you pull your sneaky little strings.”
Squishing down a smile I see at the tips of her lips, she says, “Let me help you. Please. I know I can figure this out.”
Relenting, “I am not telling you that you can’t help, but I also don’t think you can fix this.”
Pulling into the driveway she shrugs, “Well if you can overlook the restraining order, then I should be able to figure out how to break his ability to control you and your magic.”
“I hope so.” And I really do.
“I know so.” She confirms as I turn off the car and get out.
Unlocking the front door with my magic, I push it open, “You sound like a Carver.”
I can hear her scoff. “I learned a lot from you growing up. I realized early on that your magic is infinite, but that does not mean you know how to use it. That’s how I was always able to fool you. You limited yourself and your magic to the boundaries you give yourself. You didn’t push it, so I pushed you. You should really thank me.”
“Is that right?” I laugh and it feels purifying.
“The words you are looking for are ‘Thank you Cory for always forgiving me for my outburst and rudeness, you have been instrumental in learning how to use my magic, I will worship thee forever.’” Her tone was light and she had a finger in the air, with her eyes closed for dramatic effect.
Rolling my eyes, I threw my jacket on the couch. “Worship thee? You’re nuts, you know that right?”
Cory walks past me with her chin lifted high. She walks in the kitchen and points at the ground. “You should probably be on your knees and bowing to me right now.”
Shaking my head and letting out a small chuckle I say, “There is something wrong with you.”
Feigning a mocked face of shock she says, “You are being very disrespectful to your goddess.”
I pour myself a glass of water and walk out before her craziness spreads. “Good night Cory.”
Cory remains in the kitchen, but I can hear her say, “Hmm. You are dismissed servant.”
I love my crazy ass sister.
* * *
I am so tired when I leave work at Nat Lab that I can honestly say, I am not sure what I did all day. Cory and I are driving home and it’s quiet in the car, not the creepy quietness but the kind where you didn’t even notice it was quiet until you were already home.
We stop at Gino's Bar and Grill to get dinner since neither one of us planned on cooking. I was not even sure if I was going to eat or sleep first.
I don't bother to use the key to open the front door, as usual. I unlock it using my magic and push it open causing it to slam against the wall. Walking into the kitchen with a paper bag wafting the sinful Swiss cheese mushroom burger in my nose, I freeze mid-step because someone is standing there in the dark. I can’t see perfectly in the dark like werewolves or vampires, but I know a dark silhouette when I see one.
I hold my arm out, keeping Cory from passing me, and I pull her back behind me using my magic to make her invisible. Then I use a few words and freeze her so she can’t move from the corner of the front door and the living room. I slowly shut the door behind me and hesitate.
The kitchen light flicks on and I see that black lady with long, thick braids is in my kitchen. With Cory safely behind me I call my fire up and let some of it out of my palm. I roll it around like a crystal ball, hoping she’s not so dumb to misunderstand my threat.
“Council member or not, breaking and entering is still illegal.” I am trying to keep my voice calm, but this fang-er just broke into my house. And that is not okay. I am going to have to put a few spells on the house to make sure this never happens again.
Before I take my next step towards the kitchen, I remember that vampires have a keen sense of smell, too, so I mumble something else in my mind to close off Cory’s smell.
The vampire is frozen behind the kitchen counter. I must have frozen her, too, when I froze Cory. Deciding to roll with it I let her speak but that's it.
"Release me!" She says through her teeth. I haven't really had a chance to fine-tune my magic so even if I was inclined, which I’m not, but if I was, I couldn’t release other parts. I learned how to freeze voices really well because I’ve done it to Cory loads of times.
Instead of snarling I breathe through my nose to keep myself calm. "You're in my home unwelcome and uninvited. I don't see a problem with my reactions."
I move slowly to the other side of the kitchen counter where there are three bar stools. I sit on the one closest to the door.
I can see the strain it takes her to talk. "Let me go or I will consider this an act of aggression against the vampires and the Magical Council." I know she is trying to sound threatening but knowing that she is trapped, makes her threat less motivating. I hope Cory is hearing this. This was why I don’t trust the Magical Council or pure bloods.
“You broke into my house,” I say, matter of factly.
“You violated the law,” the vamp is still trying to break her frozen state. I have not met anyone who could counter my power. I couldn’t help but smile as she continued to struggle. To show her that I’m not afraid, I let her go with a dramatic eye roll, and a less dramatic hand wave. If she did anything to my sister I would kill her. If she tried to attack me, well I would kick her royal ass and probably kill her.
I am also proving a point to Cory. I was the one being reasonable, this creature wasn’t. But then again she might have been sent here because of what Dar told the council. "I was not stalking D
ar, so whatever crap he told you is a huge misunderstanding." I say, a little miffed the council was even getting involved in this.
The vampire glares at me as she wipes down her dress at her hips. She is acting like she’s wiping off my magic or something just as ridiculous. I peer behind her and notice that several glass bottles all with odd words in Cory's handwriting are on the counter.
She’s not here because of Dar.
I stand to get a good look at the bottles, and to distance myself from the predator that is rifling through our stuff. “What exactly are you doing here?" I ask, meeting the vampire's creepy light-white eyes.
"We want to know why you have a refrigerator full of potions, specifically, fairy based potions." And then she picks up my old school book with several papers sticking out like note tabs, that I know I didn't put there. But I had a sinking feeling I knew who did. Oh I was really going to strangle her later. Her damn experiments weren’t work related, they were magic related. My fire didn’t see a problem with this, which pissed me off some, but I had a huge problem with this. Bad things happened to humans who dabble in magic.
I shrug, making it clear that her finding the potions didn’t bother me. Even though it did. "I didn't know I needed permission to do magic," I say smugly.
The vampire's nose scrunches, "Don't pretend like you made them. These bottles are written in Cory's handwriting. And I happened to take a quick peek at some of her experiments at work and noticed similar fairy based formulas in her research."
I chuff, "Look at you, super sleuth. Not only did you break into my house, but you admit to breaking into a government facility. Perfectly acceptable actions from the Magic Council. Clearly, above the law."
Not a hint of remorse, "I enforce the laws, not break them, Carver."
Lifting my chin with a sneer, "Whose laws?"
The vampire has not moved much since I unfroze her. It was seriously unnatural. Her tone was self-important. “Ours. And our law states that you may not do magic around humans. The fact that fairy magic is being used in front of humans is unacceptable. I am here to gather the fairy potions and report them back to the Council. Because whoever it is doing this magic, is going to stand trial.”
I lean my hand down slowly on the bar, making sure I am level with the wild-eyed, toothy bitch. "Get out of my house before I turn your blood-sucking ass to ash."
The vampire didn’t seem enthused by my words. Carvers were always something to be feared, so her lack of fear offends me.
"I heard you were temperamental, but I didn't know you were stupid. Touch me and find that you have personally brought the war to your door step." Her tone was flat, without a hint of fear.
Am I going crazy or did she completely side-step reality? She is in my house, threatening me to bring a war to my doorstep? A war that I have no influence in, or interest. All because cures were being created with fairy magic? Oh and one more thing…
“There is no such law against Carvers doing magic in front of, or around, family members.” I eye her to make sure I have her full attention. “You know the one I’m talking about right? The law that punishes any Carver who wants to raise their kids like normal people? The law that says you will kill them if they do? But of course you guys are so fucking thoughtful you allow the parents to reclaim their kids once they turn eighteen. Right after the kid has lost all hope of ever having their real parents come and claim them back with one fantastic apology!” I am seething, and I am sure my eyes are glowing because the vampire takes one step back.
But the toothy vamp recovers quickly, “Carvers were never meant to exist. You all are an abomination to all magical kin. So don’t try and guilt me into treating you like you actually have a shred of humanity in you. You don’t. None of you do. But some, not me, thought to give you the right to live, so of course we had to make restrictions to ensure the safety of all purebloods and humans alike.”
I hope Cory is getting an earful. If not it would be a pleasure to retell this oh-so-fun scene later.
“I know the laws inside and out. I would be a fool not to, considering over half the laws are written to subdue Carvers.” I point at the bottles, “Those were found in my house. They are mine. The fact that Cory wrote the label is inadmissible. The cures are based on logic and research because Cory is a genius, not because she is doing magic. The fact that there may be some fairy concoction that resembles similar elements is coincidence. Fairies don’t create new concoctions, but humans do, so it would be logical for humans to evolve their science that parallels fairies. But in the end it’s all hearsay. Unless you catch me in the act, it can’t be proven. So now that we are clear… get the FUCK. OUT. OF. MY. HOUSE!” My voice is breaking and, I am not sure, but I think I was exhaling smoke. Ugh. Yeah, that was smoke. Tastes awful.
The vampire straightened, "I am confiscating these." She waves her hands over the bottle in front of her. "To find out who made them. All fairy magic is used with fairy energy or fairy blood, and if I find out that Cory has been illegally doing magic, I will have to report it."
Water. I tell the bottles. I picture the bottles in my mind and want every last one of those bottles to be filled with distilled water. In my mind I said the same thing in every way possible I could think of, in my blood language, to ensure that there wasn’t any evidence that Cory made them. Which she did, and I fear she may have been using her blood to create fairy magic. Not that is should have worked because she’s a human, but she and I will talk about that later.
"Sure. Take them, but you have to find your own containers. Those have sentimental value." I was going to do everything possible to make this difficult for her.
"Don't be petty," she says with contempt. Then she picks up the bottles and slowly walks past me, and out the door where I hear a car door open and shut.
The car drives away and I ground my teeth ready to scream at the top of my lungs and maybe break some shit.
I am pissed.
Extremely pissed. I hope that my magic works for those bottles, but I’m not 100-percent sure. But now, I also worry that there might be some listening devices in the house. Anything the magic council could use against me, or worse, Cory. I need to keep in my anger for Cory's sake. I don't want them coming after her. If I accuse her of making those potions and using magic that she was absolutely not allowed to work with, they could use that as my confession. I would be punished and Cory would be right there with me.
I walk over to where I left Cory and made her visible again. Then I surrounded us in a white shell that I accidently created in the bar’s storage room so that I can talk to her without the possibility of being heard. I wait a few more seconds until I unfreeze Cory. When I do, I am expecting some kind of apology, or long drawn out excuse. Instead Cory looks pissed, "Was that necessary?"
My jaw drops.
"Yes, you pain in the ass! A VAMPIRE broke into our home and ransacked it like she was the cops looking for anything to pin on me," I pound my chest for emphasis, "and I am the one acting out of line after defending your little experiments? You astound me Cory." I am shaking my head, trying not to let my fire out.
"Oh now it's our home?" She says, coldly.
"Oh come on! That's what you remember from that conversation?" I clench my fists.
"Oh, I heard her. She was needling you." She said with small dash of attitude.
"What!" I yell.
"It means to provoke!" She answers, shaking her head as if I am the dumb one.
Fuming, I bellow, "I know what it means Cory!"
Ignoring the fire that is coming out of my mouth in small spurts, she says, "Calm down. She won't find any traces of your or my blood in those bottles." Cory rolls her eyes like she was not worried at all about what had just happened. Her ability to act like this is not a big deal is beyond my understanding. I drop the shell and Cory walks right into the kitchen. She pulls out the coffee grounds and a bottle of hazelnut creamer. She pops the top and smells it and then smells
it again and narrows her eyes at me.
"Patra is going to be pissed," Cory says, with a half smirk. Then she holds out the bottle of creamer and says, "Fix it."
“Fix what? Cory! Are you really going to ignore what just happened? That suck-face just threatened to take you and me to jail!”
“She said trial, but that’s not really the point I am trying to make.”
Wow, she really doesn’t get it. “I know, but it’s the point I am trying to make!”
“I know that you’re scared. I am trying to show you why you shouldn’t be.” She pushed the bottle of creamer in front of me again.
“I am not SCARED. I’m angry!” I ignore the creamer.
“Same thing,” she shrugs.
I close my eyes and breath. I am so angry my fire is starting to swirl in my chest, not because it’s angry but because it’s worried. Damn her for being right.
Cory slowly tilts the bottle towards me. I grab the bottle sloshing the insides and peer down. It looks clear. I smell it and I didn't smell creamer.
Shaking my head I say, “I don’t get it.”
“I felt it when you messed with my stuff. As crazy as that sounds, I just know that you ruined it. It was like a piece of me had been cut.” Cory says.
My stomach drops. “What are you telling me?” I sit down on a stool, unable to think or reassure myself that this can’t be happening. I am holding the bar because it’s the one thing keeping me steady.
“I am telling you to turn this water back into hazelnut creamer.”
I spread my hands wide. “No I mean what do you mean you felt it? You shouldn’t feel connected to your experiments.”
The brat shrugs it off. “I don’t know, I just do. Now change it back, I need some coffee.”
"I don’t know how to do that." I say defensively, with my eyes in my palms. Then again I did just try and turn all those things into water so maybe… "I'll try, but before I do I need you to tell me what kind of experiments you’ve been doing."
She sniffed, “After you turn this into creamer.”
Shaking my head, I try let my fire drain from my mind so I can think clearly. When it moves down to my chest I begin to think of hazelnuts and cream. Instantly the bottle I am holding feels heavier. I open my eyes and peer down. I see brown spots in the water. I twist off the top to expose several hazelnuts floating in the whitish water.
The Carver's Magic Page 10
