Tempest

by Laura Marie

  “Look, we all have to coexist in this place. There’s a reason you cloak the town, keeping us and the vampires and werewolves and Fae safe, right? We all live together in harmony. Well, Chloe needs help, and I need you to help me help her, the way we would have done for one of us.”

  Mirta shook her head without even thinking about it. “I can’t do that.”

  “Why not?” I cried, upset even though I had expected this. “How can you let her just perish like that? She’s just a kid, like me.”

  “You’re not just a kid,” Mirta said. “No one here is. She’s a vampire, with magic that has become dangerous.”

  So the word was out. The vampires had realized it was Chloe, too.

  “And you are a witch, with magic far too powerful to control, but you refuse to reel it in.”

  I tried to make sense of what she was saying.

  “Are you refusing to help Chloe because of me?” I asked, putting two and two together.

  “I’m refusing to help someone who refuses to help herself.”

  I wasn’t sure if she was talking about Chloe or me.

  “I thought you were supposed to help me,” I said.

  “My dear,” Mirta said with a sigh, and it was condescending. “I can only help someone who is willing to change.”

  Again, I wasn’t sure if she meant Chloe or me. Either way, it was a no, so it didn’t matter. It didn’t make a difference whether they had kicked me out of the coven or if left of my own free will. I wasn’t a member of the witches anymore. The Windermere coven had rejected me because I had rejected their small thinking.

  Well, I guess I would have to fix this myself. Pity. It had been going so badly, so far.

  I threw myself into my homework after Mirta left because I had no other way of distracting myself. I was terrified of what would happen if I even tried to use my magic now, with the mood I was in. I had already cleaned the kitchen and my room, twice.

  When my mom came home, she was alone. I was grateful. I really needed her without Victor tonight.

  “Can we talk?” I asked her when she stood in the kitchen, unpacking groceries.

  “Sure,” she said. She continued to unpack the food, moving between the cabinets and the pantry.

  My mom and I hadn’t been on the best foot lately. We often argued, and when we didn’t, we tried to live past each other. It was sad that two people in the same house could be so disconnected, but I blamed her for not caring enough about me to put Victor second, and she blamed me for having too much attitude and smart remarks.

  I guess neither of us did anything to help the situation.

  “I’m worried about Chloe.”

  My mom looked at me with a sigh. “I thought I made it clear how I feel about her.”

  “I haven’t seen her,” I said defensively, and this time it wasn’t a lie. “But I’m worried that she’s in trouble. How do you help someone?”

  “It’s not your problem, sweetheart,” my mom said. “She has parents and a clan like you have the witches and me.”

  I didn’t feel like I had either of those, the same way Chloe didn’t have her parents or the clan, either.

  “Is there nothing else I can do?” I asked.

  I wished my mom would be a parent for a change and give me the advice I needed instead of being so damn non-committal.

  “Look, honey,” my mom said. “You’re at an age where the choices you make are on you. That goes for Chloe, too.”

  “But…” I started but my mom’s phone rang, and she picked it up, smiling when she saw the screen. I was willing to bet it was Victor.

  “Hello, handsome,” my mom said, cutting our conversation short. “Not much, I just came home. Come over?”

  I groaned and walked out of the kitchen. Even if my mom hung up now, I wasn’t going to be able to talk to her about anything that was going on. She already didn’t really understand who I was anymore, now that she was with Victor. It was like we lived past each other.

  And my magic was getting stronger. I was growing as a witch, but she was still just a human, moving on the same path as always.

  I walked to my room and closed the door. I collapsed onto my bed and did what I had stopped myself from doing for weeks now.

  I cried.

  I let the tears roll over my cheeks. I let everything I had felt since Chloe had freaked out about the first murder pour out of me. For so long, I had pushed it all away. For too long, I had tried to be the strong one, trying to handle everything when almost no one had been willing to help.

  But my attempts at fixing things had failed, and I was at my end. I had no way to make this better, and I had no one to talk to, and I felt like I was falling apart.

  Thunder clapped above the house, but there was no lightning. Rain started falling, picking up from a light drizzle until it roared as it came down in sheets. I knew that this was me. I knew that the world was crying when I did.

  And I had no idea how to stop this.

  Chloe was gone, and I had no way to help her. The witches wanted nothing to do with me. My mom didn’t care what I did with my life anymore.

  And Victor was a colossal pain in the ass.

  What was I supposed to do now? Was this what it was like when someone just walked out of your life? Was this what my mom had felt when my dad had left?

  It couldn’t have been this bad. I knew she wanted someone, and she had chosen Victor, but I resented her for leaving me alone in the process.

  That should never have happened.

  Then again, Chloe shouldn’t have left me alone, either. None of this should have happened.

  I wished for my life back in California, when things had been simple. Maybe my friends had been fake, and I had tried too hard to fit in when I had thought it was all that mattered. But at least my life had been predictable, and the worst kind of pain was that of being rejected by snobby teenagers who didn’t know what they wanted from life, anyway.

  The grass was always greener on the other side, wasn’t it? Unfortunately, this time, it was true. Because the grass on my side of the fence was stained with blood, and it was dying.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  On Thursday, I felt sick. I was burning up, my stomach turned whenever I so much as thought about food, and there was no way I was going to school, even if my mom made me go.

  But she didn’t make me go. She looked at me once and realized I wasn’t faking it. I was really sick.

  Before leaving for work, my mom kissed me on the head like she used to when I was a child, brought me soup that Victor had apparently made, and left for work after making me promise that I would call if anything were wrong.

  It turned out she did care.

  I spend the day on the couch with blankets and snacks that I didn’t eat. It made me feel sick. I zoned out watching old moves or reality shows and tried very hard not to think about what my life had become.

  The weather had died down a bit. It still rained consistently, but it wasn’t a storm anymore, and there was no threat of me washing Safety Beach away with my tears.

  Strangely, there had also been no new kills. But maybe it was only a matter of time.

  I didn’t want to think about that, either.

  At eleven, Victor arrived. The second I opened door and saw that goof ball grin of his I fought my overwhelming impulse to slam the door in his face. Clearly he would have known my Mom was at work, so what was he doing here.

  I groaned. I wish I could say I was subtle about it, but I hurt my head rolling my eyes back.

  “I don’t need a babysitter,” I said.

  Victor made himself comfortable on the couch and reached for a bag of chips. “Who said I was babysitting?”

  I don’t need a friend, either, I thought, but I didn’t say it out loud. See? I could learn. I wasn’t just always a bitch. I didn’t like Victor being here with me, but it beat being alone, and he wasn’t talking in my show, so I guess he could stay. Besides, I just didn’t have the energy to fight with him u
ntil he left.

  He probably wouldn’t have gone away, anyway.

  It was almost time for lunch when the doorbell rang. Victor stood and answered it.

  “It’s for you,” he said, returning to his seat and stuffing a hand full of chips into his mouth.

  I stood and walked to the door.

  Reece stood in front of me, his eyes blazing, a white circle around his mouth. He was pissed off.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Why aren’t you at school?”

  I looked at his wet clothes, his hair that clung to his forehead.

  “I’m sick,” I said.

  “What if something happened to you, too?”

  He was scared, not angry. Scared of losing me. Scared of what was happening. Scared that what had happened to Chloe wouldn’t be isolated, like bad luck and losing control could be contagious.

  “I’m sorry, I should have told you,” I said.

  I coughed and sniveled as if that was what Reece had needed to see to know that I was sick, and it was as if the anger and fear left him and he deflated.

  “We can’t give up on her,” he said.

  His eyes were so intense when he looked at me, bright green and filled with determination.

  “We don’t even know where she is,” I said.

  “Then we have to find her. But we can’t let it end here.”

  “What if she did it?” I asked before I could stop myself. Because that was what scared me. I was worried that Chloe would end up being capable of doing something like that.

  “We all lose control sometimes,” Reece said. “We all have magic that gets out of hand. I know I’ve done things as a werewolf I would rather forget. And you haven’t had the smoothest ride, either, have you?”

  I shook my head. He was right.

  “We just need to get out there, find her, and stop her.”

  “You make it sound so easy,” I said.

  Reece pulled up his shoulders. “Someone as to do it. No one else seems to care.”

  He was right, no one else seemed to care. I wasn’t sure what the vampires were doing about this, but no one that I had come into contact with seemed to give a damn about where Chloe was or what was becoming of her.

  Not even her parents, which was ridiculous. Then again, I hadn’t had contact with them. For all I knew, they had her. Maybe that was where she had disappeared to. Maybe they had taken her back home.

  “Okay,” I said.

  “Okay?”

  I nodded. “You’re right. Chloe is our friend, and we have all made mistakes.”

  Reece smiled at me, a lopsided grin that made him look so much younger than when he was angry or serious.

  “I have to get back to school. Lunch is just about over.”

  “You haven’t eaten, then?” I asked.

  “I’ll grab something on the way back.”

  “Wait,” I said and stepped back into the living room.

  I grabbed a bag of crisps from next to Victor. “Hey,” he protested, but I shoved it into Reece’s hands.

  “Something, at least.”

  He nodded with a grin and turned around, jogging in the drizzle down the road until he was out of sight. I sighed and closed the door again, leaning against it with my forehead.

  Reece was right.

  Slowly, as the day progressed, I started feeling better. There was no better pick-me-up than a mission, and Reece had dangled a carrot in front of my nose. Maybe he knew that it was what I had needed. Maybe it was what he had needed.

  When my mom came home, I waited for her at the front door.

  “You look better,” she said, suspicious.

  I nodded. “Can I go out?”

  My mom shook her head and walked to the living room where Victor had seized control of the remote. She kissed him before walking through to the kitchen.

  “So, can I?” I asked, ignoring her shake of the head.

  “Might as well,” she finally answered.

  “What?”

  “You’ll just sneak out if I say no, anyway.”

  She sounded bitter. She was upset about my recent behavior. She would have been more upset if she’d known that I had snuck out more times. Or maybe she did know, hence the bitterness. Either way, I wasn’t going to stand there until she changed her mind.

  I hurried to my room and bundled myself up, getting ready to head out into the awful weather created by my own emotions.

  By the time I stepped outside, the rain had stopped and the sun peeked out from behind the clouds.

  Well, that said a lot.

  I walked down the road, heading toward the bus stop to go to Reece’s place. I had texted him just before I’d left and he’d sent me his address. I had never been to his place before, but I knew the area, and I felt like he and I were truly becoming friends. Despite Chloe. Because of Chloe. It was a weird combination.

  “Where are you rushing off to?” someone said behind me, and when I spun around, Calder came toward me.

  “Oh,” I said.

  “You sound disappointed to see me.”

  He walked toward me and stopped a few feet away, as if he knew that I was upset with him. Even though I was angry, he was still attractive. His light brown hair looked windblown, and his eyes were impossibly dark.

  “I have to be somewhere,” I said.

  “Okay, I’ll let you go in a minute,” Calder said. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”

  “What?” It was the last thing I’d expected him to say.

  “I’m sorry for being an ass. I should have been a friend.”

  I nodded slowly.

  “I want to be friends again.”

  I thought about that. “The problem,” I said, “is that I can’t change. I won’t. My magic is a part of me, and I won’t sacrifice that.”

  “I understand,” Calder said. “I don’t want you to change who you are. I just want to be friends again. And this has nothing to do with the coven, either. Your issue with them is your business. I’m just talking about you and me.”

  I nodded. I could do that.

  “Okay,” I said.

  Calder chuckled, and I loved his face when he was smiling.

  “I thought you would be easier to sell on this.”

  I pulled up my shoulders. “Let’s just say I’ve lost more than I was willing to bear, so far. I don’t want to lose more if I can help it.”

  Calder’s smile faded. “I’m sorry.”

  “Do you know about that?” I asked.

  “The vampire? Yeah, it’s the talk around town. The coven was talking about how they should get involved, if they should get involved at all.”

  “And?”

  He pulled up his shoulders. “It’s not witch business.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I figured that was what they would say. Funny, I’m witch business, but they washed their hands of me, too.”

  Calder nodded and looked up at the sky.

  “The witches don’t like conflict. No one around here does. The more magic you have, the worse the conflict can get, and no one wants to see what will happen when we all unleash ourselves, you know?”

  I nodded. I could understand that. It actually made a lot of sense.

  “But you should do what you think is right,” Calder said.

  “I will.”

  I was about to turn around and continue on my way when I turned back to Calder.

  “Why do they have such a problem with me?” I asked.

  I meant the witches and my magic, and Calder knew exactly what I was talking about.

  “Because you have what they try to avoid, and they’re jealous of it,” he said simply.

  “What do you mean?”

  He took a deep breath and paused as if he was thinking about how to put it into the right words.

  “They don’t believe it’s right to develop anything more than one part of you, the part that manifests itself. It’s just not done. And you’re doing that. You’re breaking the coven rules.” />
  “But why is it wrong?” I asked.

  Calder pulled up his shoulders. “I guess that’s a question you’ll have to ask your dad one day.”

  I gaped at him.

  “How?” I asked. “The guy left.”

  Calder nodded. “Yeah, he left us, too.” He looked around him. “Listen, I have to go.”

  “You’re leaving me with that?” I asked. “It didn’t answer my question at all. You just created more questions.”

  Calder laughed. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out, E. I’m glad we’re friends again.”

  He stepped closer and gave me a hug. It was a tight hug, the kind that gave me butterflies.

  “I’ll see you around. Maybe not at the coven, but we’ll hang out.”

  He walked away, whistling as if he hadn’t just shaken my world to its core.

  My dad? What the hell did he have to do with this? And how was I supposed to ask him when he had left years ago without bothering to contact me at all? He was a bad example of a dad, a human being, and a warlock no less. I was sure that even if he did reappear in my life, I would want nothing to do with him.

  But like so many other things, I pushed the thought of him to the back of my mind where I would deal with it once I got around to it. Right now, I had to meet Reece so we could talk about finding Chloe and helping her out of the deep, dark hole she had fallen into.

  I hurried to the bus stop and climbed on the bus, letting it take me to one of the suburbs in town. The wolves lived here; many of the houses belonged to the pack. I could feel it in my gut, taste the magic on my tongue, even though it wasn’t supposed to be that obvious.

  But I knew I was in the right place. And maybe, ironically, a werewolf was exactly what would save Chloe

  The two species hated each other, but sometimes it wasn’t the worst thing to cross borders and form alliances with the most unlikely people.

  Maybe we had to do something like this more often.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  When I arrived at Reece’s house, he waited for me on the road.

  “I have to confess to something,” he said.