Bittersweet (14 page)

 

 

Abby's third S.O.S. call came two seconds after I pulled into her driveway the following night.

Exiting my car, I headed to her garage behind the house, as she'd instructed in her multiple messages.

The garage door was opened and I paused before entering. It was a scene from
Practical Magic
. Bottles, potions, dried herbs, candles. Just like Gran's shed.

Abby was holding a green marble mortar and pestle, grinding something into dust. She looked up and smiled. “Hey. You're here.”

“I'm here.” I surveyed the space once more before stepping inside.

“I couldn't stop thinking about that Shaqua band last night. A device to suppress magic was just what we needed.”

“Too bad it won't work here,” I said picking up a dried fig leaf. Hidden underneath were bone fragments from a small animal. I dropped the leaf.

“Well, I found a spell that does the same thing. It's sort of a banishing protection spell.”

“Which is it?”

“Both if I read it right. I'm not exactly sure, because we had to mash two different spells together.”

“We?” Who else knew about this?

“Me and my mom. She's the expert, after all.”

I pictured Abby and her mother pouring over their family grimoire. Then tried to place me and my mom in that scene. I couldn't picture it. A twinge of jealousy nipped at me.

“So I've been thinking. Maybe things could work out with me and Zanthiel after all. Now that I know I have powers too.”

Oh, no way was this behind her sudden need to cast spells. I loved Abby, but I'd give anything not to be here tonight. Now I had to talk my best friend out of going after the first guy she'd fallen in love with. Friend of the year. But heartbroken and alive trumped dead.

“Abby. You have to let him go.”

“I've been reading up on his kind, and it's not that crazy. Are you sure he's that dangerous?”

“Yes. I get that you like him. He's...” I searched for the right word. “Magnetic. But he's so many other things too, and most of them, they're not good.”

She wasn't convinced. I knew that determined look in her eye.

She grabbed a book from her shelf and flipped it open to a bookmarked page. “I've been researching them.”

Great. She must have been hooked if she'd made Faerie Studies 101 her assignment reading. Persuading her to give him up was going to be hard.

“It says in here that faeries can't lie.”

I nodded warily. “No they can't, but don't count on that to keep you safe. They have a twisted sense of what the truth is.”

She blinked, then her eyes darted back to the book. “'Descendants of both Demons and Nephilim. Possessing a tangled mix of demonic and angelic blood. Dark and light.'” Her eyes lifted. “I don't think that sounds like you.”

“It doesn't.” I made a face. “But, for all his feigned humanity, it does sound like him. I spent my whole life
being
human. He's not human.”

She nodded slowly. “Guess your witch blood tempers it.”

“Let's hope. I can't imagine finding delight in seducing humans for sport and then bargaining them out of their last breath in a poker game.”

Her eyes widened.

“Hypothetically,” I reassured her, not because it wasn't possible, but because I hadn't witnessed it yet. “Books like those,” I pointed, “they only skim the surface. There's so much more. Layer upon layer of truth you'll never find in print. At least not in our world. Faeries will promise you your heart's desire, then carve out your heart to seal the deal. If you ask for a pile of money, you might get run over by a Brinks truck. That's the kind of stuff we're dealing with here.”

She scrunched up her face. “Sick.”

“Abby. You have no idea.” I rested my hand on her arm. “That's why I had to warn you. Zanthiel is different, yes, but he's also very
very
much the same. And although I think he means well, sometimes, he doesn't understand concepts of right or wrong. He even feels pain differently, if at all. You see how dangerous he could be to you?”

“Maybe not anymore. Not with this.” She tapped on her grimoire.

I exhaled a long breath. “Magic is only a part of the solution. He's had ages to perfect who and what he is, it's a part of him. This is brand new for you, Abby. Please, it's not worth the risk.
He's
not worth the risk.”

She slumped back against the edge of the table. “Fine. Fine. You win.”

I shook my head, feeling a surge of relief. “Trust me, you're the one who wins.”

“Pass me that bundle of sage, will you?”

Now that I knew she wasn't secretly concocting love potions for Zanthiel, I felt a little better. Though the glass jar full of chicken's feet wasn't helping.

Abby lit the bundle of sage, letting the curling smoke waft throughout the garage.

I frowned. “I know I agreed to this, but if your plan involves entrails or snake's blood, I'm out.”

“Ha. You're funny.” She set the sage aside and checked her watch. “Adrius should be here soon.”

“What
? Why?”

“I called him. He's from Venus' world and he dated her.”

Wince.

“Sorry. But he might have some insight into her weaknesses.”

“She's like the Terminator. She doesn't have any weaknesses,” I sulked.

The room swirled with smoke tendrils from at least a dozen candles and incense sticks. The combination of smells made it hard to breathe. Every surface was draped with red or purple fabric, and littered with crystals, pendulums, small dolls stuffed with straw, and a bunch of oddities even I'd never seen before. I stared at her Book of Shadows. It was like an ancient artifact lifted from a museum. Absently I fingered the tattered pages, then dusted my hands on my jeans. “What is this spell supposed to do exactly?”

“If it works, it will keep us all safe from her.”

That felt like a big
if
. I nodded, not wanting to burst Abby's bubble. She'd obviously gone to a lot of trouble pulling this together. Who was I to interfere?

It looked like Abby knew what she was doing, from what little I knew of Wiccan magic. Gran had never used anything other than herbs around me, and Mom had shunned the craft altogether. Most of my references came from movies and TV. In the Nevermore magic was much more integrated and streamlined. You just willed it and it happened. No incantations or ingredients necessary. This felt lighter, less ominous. As though nothing bad could come from it. I was fairly certain Abby's spell wouldn't result in a shower of poisonous ice daggers. That fact alone made it easier to agree to.

“And you think it will work?” My elbow bumped a bottle filled with what could have been human blood. I backed away from it.

“You can never know a hundred percent, but my mom has used this spell lots of times in the past. Like when Davin's cousin fell in with those drug dealers that year, and they were coming after him. She used it and they just disappeared. It was weird, but cool.”

I shook my head. Having moved past shock, I'd circled back around to bewilderment. “I still can't believe you didn't tell me any of this, Abby.”

She paused for a moment and her chocolate eyes met mine, giving me a look that made me shrink.

“Back ‘atcha.”

That was all she said. She was right, I certainly had no right to complain. I'd kept what I could do hidden for the same reasons she had. Because I was told to, and because I didn't need to give the world any more proof that I was
different
.

The bundle of sage smoldered in a bowl, wafting lavender smoke swirls throughout the room. I watched as Abby arranged sticks of incense, infused oils and candles strategically around an altar.

When Adrius strolled in carrying a straw doll, I almost laughed out loud.

Abby frowned at me and snatched it from him. “It's a poppet,” she said defensively. “It's supposed to represent Venus.”

“Clearly.” I took in the red wool that served for hair and stuffed back a snicker.

“For someone who
believes
in magic, you're not taking this very seriously,” she said.

I closed my eyes. Oh man. What is wrong with me? Zero to jerk in sixty seconds. Yes, it was weirding me out, but Abby was my friend and she was trying to help. “I'm sorry, Abby. Just a little anxious, I guess.
This
... and
you
... it's all still kind of new for me.” I wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Sarcasm gone. What can I do to help?”

“You can meet Brianne and Davin up at the house and bring them back here.” She said with a hesitant smile.

My jaw hit the floor. “You're not serious. You
told
them... about this?”

“I had to,” she insisted, busily arranging the candles in a circle and spreading something that looked like salt in a ring around the floor. “For the circle to work, I needed to have at least five people. Who else was I going to invite?”

True enough. But I didn't know how comfortable I was with Brianne knowing more about all of this than necessary. Part of me still worried about what people would think. Years of painful practice taught me just how intolerant people could be around those who were different. I'd developed a thick skin, but being judged by people I actually cared about was much harder. Telling Davin… that was crazy.

“How is Davin okay with this?” It was his girlfriend we were trying to exorcise. Or whatever.

“He doesn't know what we're doing exactly, or who the spell is protecting us from. He probably thinks it's for Zanthiel,” she said.

“Do you have a spell in there that can do that?” Adrius asked.

I frowned at her. “Please tell me you didn't invite Zanthiel too.”

“Zanthiel is keeping Venus in his sights for the night, so we're good.”

We're good?
Nothing about this night felt good.

“Besides,” she continued, glancing up at me, “Brianne already knew something was up. When she caught me practicing some spells she insisted I concoct a love potion for her. And Davin's known about your talents for years. They're both fine with it. So chill, and hand me that Athame.”

I frowned, staring blankly at the random objects on the shelf.

“It's the knife,” Adrius whispered with a grain of amusement.

“Yeah. Thanks.” I stalked off to find Brianne and Davin and lead them into my nightmare.

****

Abby gathered everyone in a circle on folding chairs and insisted we all be serious. Hard to do when someone you've known forever suddenly goes Bewitched right before your eyes. But hey, what does that say about me? At best I was the literary equivalent of Puck and Morgana le Faye's love child.

“Now close your eyes. And keep them closed,” she instructed.

I exhaled slowly before closing my eyes.

Abby began chanting in something that resembled a foreign language and I almost opened my eyes in shock. But then we'd have to start over, which would drag this whole experience out even longer. I stifled my curiosity and focused on the warmth radiating along my arm closest to Adrius.

The chanting continued and then Abby instructed us to open our eyes. The room was in complete darkness. Then in a blinding flash all of the candles illuminated at once, filling the shed with an eerie yellow glow. Brianne gasped and Davin stared wide-eyed. Even I was impressed.

“Spirits of the north, east, south and west, hear me. Bring forth the means to destroy the evil that seeks to destroy us.” Abby's eyes rolled back in her head and the table started to tremble. A cold wind whipped through the room, trying to extinguish the candles, which refused to be put out. The flames protested, leaping higher. I heard Brianne scream but before I could say anything, something grabbed me. Hard. I was pinned to my chair, unable to move. The others in the circle jumped from their seats and stared in horror as something snaked its way under my skin.

Adrius tried to come for me, but an invisible force shoved him back. Thin black worms slithered under the skin on my arms, up my shoulders into my face, my temples. My skin stretched to the point I thought it would tear open. They snaked to my throat, cutting off my airway. It continued for an excruciating stretch of time, growing more and more unbearable. A glass-shattering scream tore from my throat, emanating a force of energy so dark and powerful it knocked me from my chair. The blast blew out the candles, spewing hot wax around the room, and freeing me from its hold.

Breathless and shaking I stayed on the garage floor, my palms pressed against the ground as Adrius rushed to help me up. Brianne was hyperventilating and Davin, pale and silent, paced next to the altar. Adrius moved a chair upright and set me in it, before my legs could cave.

He scowled at Abby. “What happened to her?”

Abby shook her head, wide-eyed as she draped a blanket around my shoulders. “I- I don't know,” she stammered, looking as lost and terrified as I felt. “Lorelei, are you okay?”

I nodded mutely, feeling anything but. My skin had returned to normal and the worms or whatever they were had vanished, leaving no sign of ever having been there at all. But I saw them. Worst yet, I'd felt them. They were too real to have been a hallucination. “My hand hurts. That's all.”

Brianne scrubbed her hands over her face. “It's time to get outta here. You know the part in a horror movie when the house says, ‘Get out,' they never do and they all end up dead?”

“Stop overreacting, Brianne,” Davin grumbled.

“
Overreacting
? This is not
normal
,
Davin. I mean, what
was
that crawling inside her?”

I looked at Abby, hoping for some reasonable explanation for the completely unexplainable thing that had just happened.

Abby's voice dropped. “I'm not sure what it was,” she said slowly, “but I think it was trying to protect us… from Lorelei.”