Luke opened the door and took a parcel. A long slender box wrapped in lilac coloured paper had me questioning what on earth it was.
“It looks like this is for you,” Luke said, handing me the mysterious item.
I didn’t have the energy to query it. I took it from him and turned it over, spotting the address label with my name on it. In beautiful italic handwriting. Marcus’ handwriting.
I glanced up at Luke, my entire body trembling. “It’s from Marcus.”
Luke’s eyes flickered towards the kitchen. “Just a parcel for Cat,” he shouted. “It’s all sorted.”
“Ok,” Mum called back.
Luke walked back up to me and picked me up. “You’re not opening that down here,” he whispered.
He carried me up to bed, laid me down, then closed and locked the door. When he came back to the bed, I was laid on my side, staring at the parcel.
“You going to open it?”
I sighed. “I’m nervous to.”
“Do you want me to open it?”
He laid down on his side, mirroring me. I pushed it across the bed towards him. He’d left a fair amount of space in between us.
In a matter of seconds, he’d shredded the pretty paper to reveal a dark blue velvet box. My heart jumped instantly. I knew it was jewellery.
Luke opened the lid, his eyes instantly widening. “I dread to think what that cost,” he said. “And it looks like you’ve got a note.” He picked up a folded piece of paper and handed it to me as he turned the box around.
When I caught sight of what had surprised him so much, I gasped. A diamond encrusted necklace complete with a silver clasped moonstone in a drop pendant stared back at me. With my birthday being in June, I had a choice of three stones for my birth month. Moonstone had always been the one for me.
I opened the note to see more of his familiar handwriting which read,
My darling Caitlyn, I know I am not there to ease the pain of your father’s untimely passing but please take comfort in this reminder of me. I kissed each stone before sending it to you. I will return home soon. My longing to be with you is my greatest desire right now. All my love, Marcus.
I read the note several times. I didn’t really know what to make of it. Not only that, I didn’t have the energy to think about it nor discuss it right now.
“Can you put it on the floor please?” I said, closing the lid and pushing it back to Luke. “I can’t deal with that right now.” I threw the note at him and said, “Make of that what you will.”
He put the box on the floor, before reading the note. When he’d finished, he raised an eyebrow. “Let’s not deal with that right now.”
I nodded. “Sleep first.”
He closed his eyes and folded his arms over his chest, appearing to be peacefully asleep almost instantly. I studied his face for several minutes, wondering why his handsomeness had never struck me in the same way Marcus’ did.
His long dark eyelashes rested against his bronzed cheeks, his skin smooth like velvet. Finger length brown hair gleamed like smoky quartz and his clothes clung to his lithe body. He was always warm, always smiling, always knew how to put me at ease. I realised he was ruggedly handsome, a proper working man who would still be just as handsome at sixty years of age.
Yet Marcus, who resembled nothing short of a Calvin Klein poster model, was handsome in a completely different way. He was simply breath taking to look at, but had he been human, his good looks would have worn away by the time he was forty. However, he wasn’t even vaguely human.
I sighed. Marcus had lived a long time. He was refined, sophisticated, meticulous with everything he did. The way he moved, the way he spoke, the way he handled different situations and different people was so smooth, like a well-rehearsed actor in front of a camera. He lived a life three levels up from mine and it fascinated me. I was like a magpie being dazzled with shiny things and promises.
Being in his world made me feel like I’d made it into some secret society but no matter where he took me or what beautiful necklace he bought me, he never quite touched me emotionally, spiritually, not like Luke did.
That was the first time I began to question me and Marcus seriously. The whole ex thing aside, where were we going anyway? He lied to me and left me alone in the middle of the night, abandoned me when I needed him the most. Being with Marcus would ensure a life of drama, passionate arguments, and missing elements of things I wanted and needed.
But I couldn’t deny the fact I loved him. Or was it in fact lust? As much as I was mad at him right now, I knew I had feelings for him that were unresolved, even if they were in question.
I sighed and closed my eyes. Everything was always better after a sleep.
Chapter Twenty-Six
When I woke, I felt like I’d had a battery recharge. It seemed like I’d had a perspective alteration just by going to sleep.
“How are you feeling?”
Staring at my polka dot socks, trying to count the white dots, as I mused in my thoughts, I hadn’t even looked at Luke yet.
I lifted my head and smiled. “I feel a lot better, thank you.”
“You seem more relaxed.”
I nodded. “I do feel a little guilty though.”
“About what?”
“Hannah.”
“Ah.”
I frowned. “What do you mean ‘ah’?”
“I know she was upset that you thought she’d been forced to be your best friend. She wasn’t forced to do anything, Cat. She could have hung around in the background of your life. There was no need for her to become your friend in order to protect you.”
I pursed my lips. “I figured. I feel awful.”
“She’ll understand. She’s not stupid by any stretch of the imagination.”
I quirked an eyebrow up. “Does someone have a soft spot for Hannah?”
He chuckled. “No. I just have a great amount of respect for her kind. They don’t have an easy life.”
“How do you mean?”
“The witches control them to the extent that only certain bloodlines are allowed to reproduce. They can’t have children unless the witches either permit it or demand it. Think of them like guard dogs and the witches being their handlers. They’re constantly restrained in some way.”
“That’s not fair.”
“The witches justify it as protecting our entire world. No one has ever dared go against them. They feel that if gargoyles were left to reproduce at will, we would be overrun with bad tempered, difficult to control bulldozers who have the ability to flatten a village with a single shout. So they curb them. Unless required otherwise.”
I sat up, my interest piqued and anger starting to simmer in my veins. “So vampires can run around, born and made, drinking witch blood or human blood as they please. Witches can perform some weird form of euthanasia, you wolves can do as you please I’m guessing, but gargoyles are collared and kept? How is that fair?”
“There is no ‘fair’ in our world, Cat. It is what it is and that’s that.”
“That says to me that the witches are scared of the gargoyles. They restrain them because they’re frightened of their abilities.”
Luke’s lips tweaked up into a smile. “Have you seen X-Men?”
I frowned. “What?”
“The films, with the mutants, Charles Xavier, Wolverine et cetera.”
I rolled my eyes. “I know what you meant, Luke. What has that got to do with this?”
“Do you remember Juggernaut?”
“The giant dude who was like a runaway train?”
Luke nodded. “Pretty much what a gargoyle is.”
“Oh.”
“Now you understand why they keep them restrained?”
“Kind of but it still doesn’t seem fair.”
“Imagine a teenage Juggernaut, full of mixed up hormones, and with anger issues.”
I nodded. “Ok, point taken. But that doesn’t mean they have to restrict them for life. Just until they’re a ce
rtain age.”
Luke nodded and sat up. “Try telling them that.”
“I think it’s time to go downstairs and make some apologies.”
“Perhaps,” he said, leaning down the side of the bed. “But maybe you ought to decide what to do with this first.”
Luke put the box containing the necklace on the bed in between us. I stared at it and sighed. Did Marcus think he could ease the pain of him leaving by sending me a necklace through the post? And how did he even know my dad had died? We’d not spoken since he left.
An idea sprung to mind. I opened the box and touched the necklace, resting my fingertips on the stones. I closed my eyes and let out a long breath. Almost instantly, images of Marcus dominated my mind. A narrow, cobbled street, sandy bricked buildings, a small but expensive looking jewellers. Row upon row of rings, necklaces, earrings, and Marcus scrutinising each one. Then an older gentleman, gift wrapping the blue velvet box, and Marcus passing him a piece of paper before leaving the shop, empty handed, but not alone.
I snatched my hand back from the necklace and snapped the lid shut. “Lying toad,” I mumbled, getting off the bed.
“What’s wrong? Did you see something?”
I went to the window and stared out, admiring the view of the sea. There was something so peaceful and serene about water, it almost lured you in with the promise of never-ending beauty but hid the fact it could kill you in a split second. Much like a siren, I thought to myself.
“I saw him buying the necklace,” I said, turning around to face Luke. “He didn’t ‘kiss each stone’ like he said, and he didn’t even post it himself—he paid the jeweller to post it.”
“Ah.”
“He’s not even bothered calling me. That night you found me at the Abbey, I’d rung him however many times and he’s still not called me back. Then he has the cheek to send that?”
“I’m sure there’s a good reason why he hasn’t called, Cat. Maybe he can’t use his phone or has no signal or something?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Just throwing the possibility out there.”
“Why are you making excuses for him? You hate the guy.”
Luke shrugged his shoulders. “I just don’t want you to jump to conclusions and think the worst. That’s not going to help your state of mind.”
I sighed. “I appreciate that, Luke, I really do. However, I’m starting to think this ‘relationship’ isn’t what I thought it was. I honestly think his only interest in me was the link to his mum.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t just that, Cat. You’re an amazing woman. He’d be a fool to pass up on you.”
“He wasn’t alone.”
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I say, Luke. What I saw when I touched the necklace, he was with that bimbo of a siren, Selina.”
Luke quirked an eyebrow up. “Selina? The blonde?”
I folded my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes at him. “Don’t tell me you have a thing for her as well.”
He laughed. “No, I most definitely do not. She’s well known around here. What was he doing with her?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “You tell me.”
“Selina has a lot of contacts. It could well be that she is the one who found him this information in the first place. Don’t forget a siren is a witch.”
“Was a witch.”
He shook his head. “Is a witch.”
I frowned. “Marcus said ‘was’.”
“And you’re inclined to believe everything he says?”
“That’s a cheap shot.”
“But a valid point.”
I sighed. “How is she still a witch?”
“Like any other. It just happens that her magic doesn’t go beyond anything other than water.”
I shook my head. “I saw her death when she fell into the sea. She was throwing fireballs at Marcus.”
“When she hit the water though, the water would have taken over her body, including her ability to control fire.”
I frowned. “In those journals though, it mentioned a fire siren for the binding spell.”
Luke nodded. “Selina is a fire siren. Her born ability to control fire is still in her blood. The fact she lives and relies on water means she can’t access that magic, but it’s still there. After all, water dowses fire.”
“We can switch what elements we control? That’s interesting…”
“I don’t think it’s quite that simple, Cat. She was using magic as she hit the water.”
“Which is how a siren is created, yes?”
He nodded.
“And there are thousands of them. Hardly a rare occurrence.”
“What are you thinking? I’m not sure I like where this going.”
“If you could recreate that energy overtaking the witch as she hits the water, theoretically you could switch elements without the need for such trauma to instigate it.”
Luke scratched his head. “I don’t mean to be rude, but you don’t really know anything about magic yet. How could you possibly know that?”
“It’s just a gut feeling.”
“Seriously?”
I nodded. “Yes, why?”
He slid off the bed and stood up. “If you can think of things like that when your magic is bound, what the hell are you going to be able to do when it’s unbound?”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“It’s going to hurt, Caitlyn. A lot.” Mum’s emerald eyes were full of worry. “I don’t think you quite understand.”
“Did it hurt when you bound me?”
“If you’d been awake, yes.”
“Did you sneak into my room whilst I was asleep or something?”
Mum shook her head. “No. We cast a sleeping spell on you so you wouldn’t wake up no matter what.”
“Can’t you do the same again?”
Mum shook her head. “You need to be awake at the end of it to take the potion.”
I let out a long breath. “Ok, fine. Let’s do it.”
“Are you sure?”
I sighed. “Does my magic need unbinding?”
“I’m not sure if it’s that much of a desperate need.”
“Look, people know who I am and what supposed power I have, yes?”
Mum nodded.
“If I don’t unbind myself, they’ll most likely find a way to do it themselves. Am I wrong?”
“No. They will most likely kidnap you, torture you, and then make you agree to it.”
Luke snorted. “They can try.”
I smiled. “Going off that theory, surely I’m best to unbind myself and at least be half prepared for when they decide they want to drain my blood.”
“They won’t kill you,” Hannah said. “If you die, your magic dies with you. They’ll likely string you up and bleed you drip by drip so you replace what you lose constantly. Like a tap.”
A ball of nausea swirled around in my stomach. “Thanks for that, Hannah.”
She smiled. “You’re welcome.”
I looked at Mum and frowned. “I thought when a witch dies, their magic is released back into the universe to be recycled for future witches to be born with?”
Mum laughed. “You’ve met Keres.”
“Yes…how do you know?”
“Because that’s the crap she spins to keep her sheep following her. That is not what happens at all. When a rich person dies, what happens to their estate?”
“It’s left to their relatives in the will.”
Mum nodded. “Exactly. The family benefit from it. It doesn’t get shared out between every other rich person on the planet, does it?”
“No.”
“Same with magic. When a witch dies, their magic is dispersed amongst their surviving relatives. You will be noticing things now your dad has passed. That’s his magic boosting yours.”
“So why is Keres lying? She can’t gain from sacrificing all those people.”
“Oh, she can if they’re relatives.”<
br />
I frowned. “But how can she have that many relatives?”
“Breeding programmes.”
“I’m sorry, what now?”
“It’s a gig she’s been running for years. She specifically matches witches together and encourages them to start a family. At some point in their bloodline, she will be linked. If the children are of power, she will keep them in the coven. If they’re not, she blanks the minds of the parents and sends them out to live as normal humans. Then she will magically ‘find them’ with an illness, past the age where magic is useful, and sacrifice them.”
“And no one suspects a thing?”
“Why would they? She gives them all a little power boost when a sacrifice is made. A temporary one mind, but because they feel the fizz in their veins they believe it’s permanent.”
I looked at Mum and said, “You need to unbind me. Now.”
“We need to get the potion first.”
“Where is it? What is this ‘dark place never visited’?”
“It’s open to interpretation. All it means is it needs to be stored somewhere that means it won’t be disturbed until it’s necessary.”
“And where did you store it?”
Mum glanced at Luke and Hannah in turn then let out a big sigh. “Your father took the saying literally. There is a place not far from here that he never visited but really should have done. It was his dark place.”
“Where?” Luke asked.
“It’s near Goathland. Not many people have even heard of it. It’s a tiny little village, well more like a hamlet actually. There’s a waterfall there—”
“Beck Hole,” Luke said.
Mum nodded. “Yes, how did you know?”
“I know every last inch of my family’s territory. We have around five hundred and fifty-four square miles of it to be exact.”
My jaw dropped. “How much?”
He grinned. “We have everything up to Guisborough, down to Scarborough, and over to Thirsk.”
I pulled out my phone and fired up Google maps. “That’s like the whole of the North York Moors National Park.”
“We’re a big family.”
“But…but that’s just greedy.”
Love, Lies and Blood Ties: A young adult paranormal romance (Love, Lies and Ties Book 2) Page 20
