Family Magic (17 page)

“We didn’t know how powerful she was,” Dad
told him over me. “It was the first time any of us felt the edges
of it, she’s suppressed it for so long.”

“And?” Uncle Frank said.

“She scared her mother,” Dad whispered.

Frank stared.

“She has no edges,” my father said.

Frank went a little paler, hard for a vampire
who hasn’t eaten all day.

As for me, I just held myself and shook.

***

My stomach growled as I waited for the
volleyball to come my way, a slight distraction but not enough to
take the edge off of my newfound aggression.

My Thursday was half over and gym class was
near the end, too. Volleyball wasn’t normally my favorite sport.
Except for soccer, I wasn’t all that athletic. I also hated the
school’s excuse for a gym. The big room huddled around us, dank and
windowless, lit by buzzing fluorescents that gave me a light
headache every time I walked in. It reeked of old sweat, floor
polish and a history of nerds being thrashed by bulky jocks with
nothing better to do.

I discovered whacking at something repeatedly
despite the surroundings appeared to be good for the soul.

At least the state my soul was in.

I tried not to think about the day before and
willed it from my memory as I dove for the ball, contacting not
only with it but with Suzanne Parker, one of Alison’s cronies.

She glared at me like I killed her puppy.

Suck it
up
, I thought, giving her the blank face
back.

“You’re dead,” she whispered before going
back to her place.

Like I was worried. In fact, Team Alison was
the very least of my concerns. Hadn’t I just found out I was
trapped forever with no escape possible?

Suzanne’s little threat seemed pathetic
compared to that.

I went to bed the night before with my head
spinning, refusing to talk to anyone, including Uncle Frank. Might
have had something to do with the fact I now knew the coven would
never let me go. Worse, if I refused to do anything about my power
for much longer they would force me to deal with it. I don’t know
if I was mad at my uncle for not telling me sooner or angry at him
for making Dad tell me the truth, as odd as that sounds. As for
Mom… well, I had no intention of sharing anything of importance
with her any time soon.

I fled the house that morning with no
breakfast, no lunch bag and couldn’t care less. Of course, my
stomach had other ideas, but it was pretty easy to ignore. All I
had to do was start thinking about the mess that was my life and
everything else went away.

The hard part was not thinking about it. A
little stomach growling and empty threats from a silly girl were
welcome right about then.

As I moved positions, I took a hard hit from
behind. I ended up on my knees on the floor. I rolled off of them,
examining both even though I knew they were roughed up pretty good.
I glared up at Suzanne’s grinning face and let the anger out into
my eyes.

She would have screamed if she could have
caught her breath.

I quickly suppressed the power, cursing at
myself as the unpleasant coppery taste of the demon faded from my
mouth now flooded with saliva from my usual bout of nausea. Uncle
Frank was right, after all. I couldn’t even keep from flashing
magic at a dumb bully whose idea of retaliation was skinning my
knees.

Suzanne backed away from me and into the
crowd of girls. They all whispered and pointed. I kicked myself
harder. I glanced away only to see Quaid staring at me with that
dark grin on his face. He bowed his head to me. I shot him a frown
and climbed to my feet.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to say to
Suzanne to diffuse the situation. In fact, I was pretty sure short
of wiping the memory there wasn’t much I could say. I was still
wrapped up in finding an answer when I noticed Mr. Murphy, the gym
teacher, waving at me. I glared one last time at Suzanne and crew
and jogged on my sore knees across the gym. I didn’t know Quaid was
right beside me.

I glanced over at him as the balding teacher,
more nerd than jock, gave us both the thumb-jerk.

“You two are called to the office,” was all
he said. He trotted back to the center of the gym in his
short-shorts and knee socks, blowing his whistle.

I ran to get changed. It took about a minute.
I hit the stairs to the office.

I froze at the top as Erica spotted me. It
wasn’t the fact it was Erica, exactly. She radiated fear.

My heart started to pound as I heard Quaid
jog up the stairs to stop beside me. Erica hurried forward to both
of us, trying to smile and failing miserably.

“We need to go,” she said, turned and went
out the front doors, leaving with us or without us, it seemed.

What happened? Quaid and I exchanged another
look. He grinned at me and followed her. I gave myself another
second to get my heart under control.

The very fact Erica was driving my mother’s
Mustang shot fear through me. I froze by the passenger door. Erica
shoved her sunglasses up on the bridge of her nose.

“It’s not Miriam,” she said. “We have to
hurry, Syd, please.”

Now that I knew my mom was all right, I
obeyed, climbing in the front seat, wincing as Quaid slid over the
paint to slide into the back. It only occurred to me after Erica
peeled out of the parking lot I shouldn’t care one way or another
if Mom was okay.

“Are you going to fill us in?” I clutched at
the door as Erica took a corner hard, feeling the seat belt dig
in.

“There’s been an accident,” she said, voice
tense, focused on the road, driving as fast as she could without
flipping the car.

“Who?” Quaid leaned forward, sticking his
head between the seats.

“Seat belt,” Erica said. Quaid leaned back. I
heard the snap of the buckle as he obeyed her order. Funny, but I
didn’t believe Quaid was a follow orders kind of guy. Guess I
hadn’t pegged him as well as I thought.

“The Vegas,” Erica said. “Louisa and Martin.
They’ve both been... injured.”

Injured didn’t sound right, but I let it
go.

“And you need us why?” I held on as she spun
into the driveway of a small bungalow. The street outside looked
packed with cars. Kind of early in the day for a party.

Erica unbelted and slammed the door of the
Mustang before I even caught my breath.

“Come on, you two!” She ran up the driveway
in her high-heeled sandals. She disappeared through the front
entry.

I climbed out as Quaid vaulted himself over
the side of the convertible. I didn’t even bother to check for
scratches. Wouldn’t be my butt on the line if the car was hurt. He
was already ahead of me by the time I started to the house.

Something triggered a huge case of the goose
bumps. I turned around and came face to face with the big black dog
from down the street. He sat on his haunches at the end of the
driveway, barely twenty feet from me.

A strange feeling I distantly recognize
pinged. My demon reached out and swatted him.

The dog shook his massive head as though he
were hit with something. He stood up and trotted off. I watched him
go around the back of the house and out of sight. I gave myself a
little hug. Stupid dog, what was his problem? At least I found out
he didn’t like magic. Good to know for next time.

I gathered myself together and went inside. I
didn’t need to follow the sound of chanting to know the Vegas would
be in their basement. I made my way across the tidy modern kitchen
smelling of fresh herbs and home cooked meals. I went slowly down
the stairs, pushing through the ring of power almost sealed off. I
barely made it to the bottom of the steps before the circle closed
with me inside. I shuddered as every hair on my body stood up from
the charged air.

I stayed in back as much as I could, trying
to avoid tripping over the big deep freezer hugging the side of the
stairway. I peeked around shoulders and heads and the occasional
bunch of drying flowers to try to figure out what happened. I
maneuvered enough to be able to see and had to suppress a gasp.

I had known Louisa and Martin Vega since I
was a small child. I always liked the cheerful Puerto Rican couple.
Neither over five and a half feet, their round, brown faces were
always full of smiles, chocolate eyes adoring, at least to me. They
looked so much alike I mistook them for brother and sister when I
was young. They were a perfect matched set of love and happiness.
The best part? Louisa was a phenomenal cook who insisted everything
she made had to be heavily sampled to assure the quality. They
doted on me when I was little, being childless themselves. Despite
my dislike for the coven, they had a special place in my
memories.

What I saw in that basement made my heart
ache. The middle-aged couple crouched together in a writhing ball
of sickly, greenish light, square in the center of their pentagram.
I was only guessing, but what I did remember of my basic witchcraft
told me it was only that very symbol keeping them alive.

They held each other within the gyrating
sphere, flinching over and over. When I saw fresh blood appear on
Louisa’s smooth, mocha cheek, it made sense. Whatever made up the
sphere was not only holding them, it attacked them as well. My
heart pounded in my chest, fear for them rising. My attention fell
away from them and to Mom as she stepped forward, fueled by the
family’s magic.

She raised her arms and pushed against the
sphere, testing its edges. I felt my power surface and start to
drain as she increased the pressure. I glanced around me and saw
the signs of strain on the faces of the other members. Here and
there the weaker ones started dropping off, sinking to the floor,
covered in cold sweat. Still, Mom pushed, her face twisted in
concentration. More and more witches fell away, but she refused to
quit.

“Miriam!” Batsheva shrieked at her. “You have
to stop!”

My mother shook her head.

“Almost,” she panted, “there...”

Erica collapsed in front of me. I reached for
her in time to ease her to the floor. I caught a glimpse of Quaid,
sweat pouring over his crimson face as he struggled.

I realized unlike everyone else, I wasn’t
feeling the effects of the power drain. Whether she wasn’t taking
as much from me or I was holding my own, I had no idea. But I knew
if someone didn’t do something soon, the whole coven would
collapse, used up, and the Vegas could possibly die.

I turned back to the writhing couple and saw
quite clearly what my mother was doing wrong. The sphere fed off of
the collective, siphoning into itself. Why didn’t she see it? I
considered calling out to her, even took a step forward, but
stopped myself at the last second. She was very close to totally
committing the coven to the battle. If I broke her concentration
now, the effects could be devastating.

Instead, I returned my attention to the ball
of light and really looked this time. I had never seen green power
before and yet there was so much about it that felt familiar and
even ordinary. Yet, I’d only witnessed the amber and blue of the
family. It made me wonder about its origins.

It was then I saw the sphere was only stable
if the connection to the origin remained intact. That connection
trailed off, the end of it already shattered and fading like smoke.
Trouble was, that source wasn’t necessary any longer. The pool of
energy was now feeding on the witches around me. Pouring power into
it to break it wasn’t helping, it was making things worse. The
shunt where the original power focused was the weak link.

I knew what to do. Not thinking or planning
or even realizing I was acting, I reached out and brushed the edge
of it, my demon magic tearing it open while I absorbed the thin
string that remained of the green magic into my own body like it
was coming home.

Two very spectacular things happened in that
instant.

One, my demon roared to life and tore through
the membrane, releasing the Vegas.

And two, the instant collapse sent a huge
wave crashing back as all the stolen power returned at once.

Three quarters of those assembled ended up
physically propelled into the walls as their magic slammed back
into them. The rest ended up collapsing in a near faint from the
rush. Mom stood swaying on her feet, face blank with shock. I made
it across the room to her side and took her arm, just in time to
help support her before she fell.

One shaking hand went to her forehead,
pushing her damp black curls back away from her face. She peered up
at me, confused, dazed, her fingers brushing my cheek.

“Syd?” She whispered. “What happened?”

I didn’t get a chance to speak.

“That untrained child of yours happened,”
Dominic snapped at her, glaring at me at the same time.

Mom pulled herself straighter and frowned at
him.

“What are you talking about?” Mom said.

Dominic pointed at me, glaring around the
room, drawing the rest of the coven in. “That demon child of yours
almost killed us all, Miriam, including you!”

I felt like he physically slapped me across
the face. Of all the ungrateful...! I opened my mouth to snap
something back. Mom’s hand tightened on my arm. I took the
hint.

“Syd did nothing of the sort,” she said,
getting her balance back as she reabsorbed her power. “I advise you
to watch your accusations, Dominic, when it comes to my
family.”

Batsheva stepped forward, silencing her
husband with a glare. The smile she offered Mom was weak.

“You were too deep inside of it, Miriam,”
Batsheva said, her eyes flickering to me. “You couldn’t see what
happened. But we all did.”

There were a great many nods, some
shamefaced, but others angry.