Believe: The Complete Channie Series (8 page)

Eric sat up and said, “What’s wrong?”

“You broke my effing nose.”

“Yeah, but that was five minutes ago. What just happened? I heard something crack.”

“I don’t know, but it hurts worse now than it did when you hit me.”

Channie cringed. She should have cast a pain-away spell first. Or no spell at all. She needed more practice with Chastity’s magic before she used it to fuel a healing spell. It was a lot harder to heal someone with negative energy.

Josh sneezed twice, swearing and spraying blood clots everywhere. But at least his nose quit bleeding. Unfortunately, it was still swelling and the skin under both eyes was turning purple. He helped Eric to his feet, then looked at Channie. “If anyone asks, tell them we were tossing a football around. I missed and got smacked in the face. Okay?”

Channie nodded her head. She read Josh’s energy field, expecting to find anger and fear since he was focused on her, but all she found was affection, a desire to protect her…and lust.

Eric was a different story. He radiated nothing but fear and anger. “If you ever come near me again—”

“Dude, you started it.” Josh cut him off.

“But she hit me with some kind of power beam.“

“Power beam? Seriously?” Josh glanced at Channie with a questioning look then turned back to Eric. “How hard did you hit your head?”

“I don’t know how she did it, but I’m telling you—that girl’s dangerous.”

Channie
decided she’d caused enough trouble for one day and skipped the rest of her classes. She rode her bicycle to Heritage Park and sat in the shade of the pavilion until school was over. She would have enjoyed soaking up some sunshine, but hid in the shadows. She didn’t want Momma to see her if she happened to look out one of the east windows.

Three hours later, Channie still had the burnt onion stench of a curse clinging to her, but unless she wanted to answer questions about why she was late coming home from school, she had to go. She got up and rubbed against a pine bough to see if that would hide the smell. It didn’t. All it did was gum up her hands and clothes with sticky, yellow sap.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. 

Momma wrinkled her nose when Channie walked in, but she didn’t scold her. Daddy actually smiled. And why shouldn’t he? The smell of Chastity’s curse was proof their little plot to ruin her life was working.

Channie went to bed right after supper and slept until noon the next day. Too many sleepless nights and the expenditure of so much magic had finally taken its toll. But she didn’t want to miss her afternoon classes two days in a row, so she persuaded Momma to write her an excuse and rode her bike to school.

Josh’s fight with Eric must have boosted his confidence. Instead of sitting on his bike and watching Channie ride away after school—he followed her.

She’d fantasized about talking to Josh for days, but maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. Even though he’d defended her at the time, he knew she’d zapped Eric. He was bound to ask questions she wasn’t supposed to answer. If he lasered her with those deep blue eyes of his, she was afraid she’d tell him the truth.

Channie pedaled as fast as she could, but it wasn’t fast enough. Her legs were on fire and she had a stitch in her side when Josh caught up with her on his child-sized-junk-yard bicycle. He hadn’t even broken a sweat.

“Hey, Channie. Did you read my note?”

She stopped pedaling and let the bicycle coast. There was no point killing herself trying to outrun him since it was obviously impossible. Still gasping for breath, she nodded her head.

Josh pressed his mouth into a thin, hard line and said, “Oh. Okay, then.” He nodded his head once and took off, jumping ahead of her as if she’d been standing still.

Channie knew she should just let him go, but the way his body slumped with disappointment tugged at her heart. “Josh, wait a minute. I want to talk to you.”

He veered off the path and wheeled his bike around. Channie thought he was going to shoot right past her. But at the last minute, he hit the front brake. Hard. Gravel scattered across the path as the back end of his bike popped up off the ground.

Channie gasped, but instead of tumbling over the handlebars, Josh caught the front tire with one foot and kicked the back end of his bicycle around with the other. He bounced his way back onto the concrete path without touching his feet to the ground.

Channie sniffed the air but didn’t detect even a trace of magic. Josh did all that trickery without a balance spell. “How’d you do that?”

Josh grinned and shrugged his shoulders. “I just like goofing off.” He bit his lower lip then pulled it through his teeth again. It was obviously a nervous habit, but it brought back the memory of kissing him. Channie’s cheeks flushed hot when she realized she was licking her lips as she stared at his.

He bounced in place on his bike as if it were a pogo stick. “So...Why didn’t you call me?” He stopped bouncing, but kept his feet on the pedals, perfectly balanced.

“We don’t have a phone.”

His eyebrows shot up and disappeared under the curls that fringed the edges of his bike helmet. “You don’t have a phone?”

“Didn’t I just say that?” Channie didn’t mean to be so snippy, but this high-altitude was killing her. She pushed her hand against the stitch in her side and took a deep breath. “Momma and Daddy are still fighting over whether or not to spend money on a telephone. So no, we don't have one. But even if we did. I couldn’t call you.”

Josh’s Adam’s apple bobbed twice before he spoke. “Couldn’t or wouldn’t?”

“Huh?”

“Is there some reason you can’t call me? Even if you had a phone?”

“Yeah. My daddy would kill you.”

He blinked and jerked his head back, ducking his chin. “Why?”

“He doesn’t want me to have a boyfriend.”

“I don’t want to be your boyfriend! Unless you want me...I mean...I just want to be your friend.”

“I’d love to be your friend, but Daddy doesn’t know the difference between a boy that’s a friend and a boyfriend.”

“I’d be happy to explain it to him.”

“Look, Josh, it was nice talking to you, but I gotta go. If I’m late getting home, Momma and Daddy will lay into me.”

“You live close to Heritage Park, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll ride with you to the park and we can talk on the way.”

“Okay, but if I tell you to leave, you have to do it immediately. I don’t want Momma or Daddy to see us together.”

“Can I give you some friendly advice? You know, since we’re friends now.”

Channie lifted her eyebrows.

“Other kids might tease you if they hear you call your parents Momma and Daddy.”

“Well, they can just kiss my lily white ass. I don’t care what they think.” The sudden tightness in her chest and flush of heat creeping up her neck did not support her vehement declaration.

“Good for you.” Josh yanked the front wheel of his bicycle off the ground and grinned at Channie as he rode beside her. “I think we’re going to be great friends.”

Channie thought so too. She couldn’t keep from grinning back at him. “Now, can I ask you something? You know, since we’re friends.”

Josh laughed and nodded his head. “Sure, ask me anything.”

“Why are you friends with Eric?”

“I’ve known Eric Rickmond since grade school. We’re more friends out of habit than any thing else. He’s a jock and I’m...not. ”

Josh slammed the front tire of his bicycle back down onto the concrete path. “BMX racing may be an Olympic event, but it doesn’t count as a sport at Monarch. I can’t even get P.E. Credit for it...so racers aren’t jocks.” Josh laughed, but without humor. “Not even if you’re nationally ranked and sponsored.”

Channie had no idea what BMX racing was, but she wasn’t about to ask the only kid at school that didn’t already think she was nothing but a stupid, inbred hillbilly to explain it.

“Eric and I only hang out together as a last resort. When there’s no one else available. Now, can I ask you something else?”

“Of course.”

“Why did your parents name you Chastity?”

Channie’s heart skipped a beat, then jumped into double time. Telling an empty about magic was an unforgivable sin. But so was changing her name. She was tired of feeling isolated and unloveable. She and Josh would never be more than casual acquaintances if he didn’t know who and what she really was. Even if they never progressed past friendship, she didn’t want to hide behind a lie. She took a deep breath and said, “Can you keep a secret?”

“Sure.”

“I mean it. You can’t tell a single soul.”

“Cross my heart and hope to die.”

Channie gasped before she remembered that Josh didn’t have the ability bind himself with a death-pledge. She looked around to be sure no one could overhear her confession. They were completely alone, but she lowered her voice anyway.

“I’m a mage.”

“A mage? Like in World of Warcraft?”

“Like a witch, but we prefer the term ‘mage,’ it’s less offensive.”

Josh snickered and rolled his eyes. “I suppose you transferred here from Hogwarts.”

“I transferred here from Arkansas. My name used to be Enchantment, but Daddy caught me talking to some easily influenced, magically disabled boys the day before school started and decided my virtue was in danger. He and Momma changed my name to Chastity. It’s a curse. If I get too close to a boy that’s thinking impure thoughts, I can’t help it, I zap him.”

Josh laughed. “You should be in my creative writing class. With an imagination like that, it’d be an easy A.”

Channie glared at him and said, “I am not making this up.”

“Come on, Channie. You don’t expect me to believe that.”

“I most certainly do!”

Josh’s smile disappeared.

Channie said, “You remember when you kissed me?”

Josh bit his lip and nodded.

“In your note, you said that you didn’t know what came over you. Well, I do. You kissed me because I wanted you to. I cast a come-hither spell on you and it wouldn’t have mattered if I were the ugliest girl in the world. You would have kissed me anyway.”

Josh’s eyes widened. “You wanted me to kiss you?”

Channie had just confessed to using illegal magic on him and all Josh got out of it was that she’d wanted him to kiss her. This was so frustrating. “It was a test. I needed to activate Chastity’s power and see what would happen before I started school.”

Josh looked at his feet and nudged a pebble off the concrete path with the side of his shoe. “Yeah, right. Whatever. If you want to blow me off, just say so. I’ll leave you alone.”

“I’m not blowing you off. My parents changed my name to Chastity so I couldn’t...you know...mess around with boys.”

Josh’s smile crept back into place. He leaned over his handle bars and inched forward, mischief sparkling in his eyes. Channie knew she was staring again, but she couldn’t help it.

“So. How close can I get?” The flirtatious tone of Josh’s voice snapped Channie out of her trance.

She laughed and said, “It depends. How dirty are your thoughts?”

Josh stopped and jerked his shoulders back, locking his elbows. “My thoughts are not dirty!”

The crimson blush on his cheeks and ears indicated otherwise, but it was the prickly rush of magic under Channie’s skin that proved he was lying and warned her to back off. She wanted him to believe her, but she didn’t want to convince him by cursing him.

“It’s getting late. I gotta go. I’ll see you at school, tomorrow.” She kicked off and headed for the house with Josh’s gaze boring into her back, right between her shoulder blades.