Inherited Magic (10 page)

The cold, callous way in which
Jackson referred to killing her mother caused Allison to feel a blind fury. It
was a stronger rage than anything she had ever felt. Angry tears obstructed her
vision; her head ached with the quickening of her pulse. 

“Don’t you talk about her!” she
yelled at the glass. The moment she yelled, several lights within the RV blew.

She was not thinking of anything
else except his blood. Allison wanted him to suffer, to die for his actions.
She raced for the door, intent on ending his life.  If not for Cain’s quick
reaction, she would have made it outside. Cain restrained Allison who fought
and struggled to reach the door handle.

“There will be time for revenge,”
Cain said.

Allison glanced back at Jackson
through the window.

Jackson’s eyes flickered with
delight, “Ooh, mommy is a touchy subject.”

Her anger was replaced by fear at
his apparent recognition of her emotions. Allison stopped struggling, and
turned to Cain.

“I thought he couldn’t hear.”

“He can’t, but he can sense energy
and magic, even across dimensions. Especially when it is that emotionally
charged.”

“Anyway,” Jackson continued, “rest
assured that I do not wish to kill you, at least not right now. I think you
could be a tremendous asset to us if you were alive. You see, you are as much a
part of us as you are of your mother’s family. The DNA of our Blood Coven is
coursing through your veins as we speak. If you had been raised by us, instead
of your grandmother, you would be more powerful than you can even imagine.”

She had never thought of it like
that. Allison was as much a part of evil as she was a part of good. What if
they had raised her? From that perspective, she would consider them the good
guys. Who knows how many murders she would have taken part in.

“Adam told us about your
fascination with the perceived villains in movies. This tells me that you think
for yourself and you have the potential to work with us. Our quest is about
power, nothing else. Yes, we kill people, but only to obtain power. We do not
murder for pleasure, we’re not monsters.”

“I wouldn’t call it a fascination,”
Allison said to herself.

Jackson was standing outside the
RV, silent, as if waiting for some type of response.

“Come out now and join us, and
everything will go back to normal. We won’t hurt your grandmother, your friends
or your father. You can begin training with us. You and Adam can pursue a
romantic relationship, if you so desire,” Jackson said.

Allison had wanted a relationship
with Adam, and she would be lying if she said the thought of pursuing one right
now did not pique her interest. Why would she still be interested in having
anything to do with Adam, after all that had happened? Still, she found
Jackson’s offer tempting. What if this was the only way to keep her family and
friends safe? It was worth never seeing them again to know they were okay. She
could make that sacrifice for the ones she loved.

“Maybe I should go with him. If it
keeps everyone safe, it may be for the best,” Allison said.

“Jackson is a liar, and a good one.
He would kill us all, maybe not you at first, but eventually,” Cain said.

“Cain is right. It wouldn’t keep us
safe, and it wouldn’t keep you safe,” Ruby said.

“Think about it. You have until
sunset before we decide to go another route,” Jackson said before disappearing
back into the trees along the interstate.

“What did he mean by that?” Allison
asked.

“Who knows? Jackson isn’t very
patient, and he often has more than one plan to get what he wants,” Cain said.

“We have to find a way out of here.
I need to try and tap into whatever magic I have, trained or not. Maybe it will
work and I can seal up the hole,” Allison said.

“Even if you can, that still won’t
put air back in the tire,” Vinnie said.

“Maybe not, but fixing the hole
will be a start, if I can even do that.”

Ruby worked with Allison, helping
her learn to access her magic within. Ruby focused on showing her the way to
manipulate objects. They sat together at a table and Allison tried to move a
penny across the table’s surface several times. Allison was becoming frustrated
because the coin remained still. She knew she had moved the pool ball the other
night.

“This isn’t going to work,” Allison
said.

“It will, but you have to want it,”
Ruby said. “Relax your mind and focus on nothing but the penny and how much you
need it to move.”

Allison shut her eyes and drew a
breath. She opened them and looked down at the shiny, motionless coin. She focused
all of her attention on that penny, willing it to slide across the table. It
did not move. Allison stood up and let out a groan of frustration.

“We’ll try again in a minute,” Ruby
said.

Allison nodded, walking to the
refrigerator to grab a drink. Vinnie and Cain watched her but did not say
anything. After a short break, Allison was ready to try it again.

“Remember; concentrate all the
energy in your body. Focus it through your mind. You have to push it out.
Project your magic,” Ruby said.

Allison looked down at the coin.
Ruby’s words ‘Push it out, project’ replayed in her mind. To Allison’s
amazement, the penny moved halfway across the table.

“It moved,” Allison said.

“I knew you could do it.”

After the first time, Allison
practiced moving the penny longer distances. Soon, it seemed second nature to
scoot the coin around with her mind. Ruby, Vinnie and Cain all watched, seeming
to be impressed. They moved on to larger objects, first a glass then a book.
She was soon able to lift the book off the surface and make it float through
the air.

They were ready to try her gift out
on the tire. Allison stretched out on a bed in the back and closed her eyes.

“First, clear your mind and
concentrate on nothing but the tire outside. This will be a little harder
because the object is not in front of you. You will have to see it with your
mind,” Ruby said.

Allison took deep breaths and
worked to think of nothing other than the tire. It was harder than she
anticipated. She focused on the tire and the hole, but other things kept
intruding on her mind. She tried several times before anything happened. After
a while, she could see the tire as well as if she were standing outside looking
at it.

“Try to manipulate the rubber, try
to forge it back together,” Ruby’s voice instructed.

Allison looked down at the jagged
hole, willing it to fuse back together. She concentrated, putting all of her
energy into this task. She was pushing out with her mind and when she could see
that it was beginning to work, she pushed even harder. The hole was sealing up.
She was using all of her energy and it was working. She continued to project
until everything went black. That was the last thing she remembered.

She blinked, not knowing how much
time had elapsed. Cain, Vinnie and Ruby were all staring at her. She tried to
sit up, but the pulsing in her head was too painful. She put her head back on
the pillow. Allison felt something warm and wet on her face. She rubbed above
her lip and looked at her fingers, which were now covered in blood. Ruby began
wiping at her face with a wet rag.

“We did too much,” Ruby said, her
tone apologetic. “I should have known better.”

“This isn’t the first time that
I’ve had a headache or a nosebleed from visions,” Allison said.

“But, it is the first time you blacked
out and that is my fault. If you stretch the limits before you’re ready, these
things happen. The more we work and the more you learn to control your gifts,
you won’t have nosebleeds or headaches any longer.”

“So I have these abilities or
whatever, but I can’t use them?”

“You have the potential to be so
powerful, but it’s like lifting weights. You can’t start with 300 pounds. You
have to work up to it,” Cain said.

“I think I need a nap,” Allison
said, “It feels like I haven’t slept in a week.”

“Okay sweetie, you just rest,” Ruby
said kissing her forehead.

It only took a moment for Allison
to go to sleep. Her sleep was deep and uninterrupted by dreams or visions.
While her mind rested, she formed an idea. She knew how they could have their
tire changed without leaving the RV. After three hours, she woke up with a
plan.

“I know what to do,” she said.

“About what?” Cain asked.

“Cain, we can use your laptop to
find the numbers of some local garages. We can call, tell them where our RV is
and that we need to have the tire changed. They can get to the spare tire
without going into the RV.”

“True, but we have to be able to
pay them.”

“We just need to find one that will
accept payment by phone or online through a credit card. We’ll say that we had
to go somewhere, so the RV is empty and then pay over the phone. Nothing is
opened, which means the veil isn’t broken, and the tire is changed. We can keep
going and Jackson won’t even know which way we went because he still won’t be
able to see us.”

“That is a great idea,” Ruby said.

Vinnie and Allison began using the
laptop to locate phone numbers of garages in neighboring towns. After calling
several numbers, they found a garage just a few miles away with a mechanic who
was willing to come out and change their tire, for an extra fee. They completed
the transaction over the phone and within thirty minutes, a blue truck
approached the RV. A young man stepped out. They were all still and silent,
careful not to make a sound. Allison looked out the window to see the young man
walking back to his truck. He was medium height with a muscular build and his
right arm was covered in tattoos.

“He’s cute. We might need to have
some more work done,” Allison said.

“He’s obviously too old for you,”
Ruby said.

“Besides, between Josh and Adam, I
think you have enough guys to worry about,” Vinnie added.

“Whatever. I’m over Adam and Josh
will be over me after all this,” Allison said, wishing she hadn’t ignored his
last text.

She wondered what he thought of
her, and the fact that she and Vinnie were both missing from class.  The blue
truck was now well out of sight, and Cain turned the key. The roar of the
engine interrupted her thoughts of Josh, Adam and home.

“Should we continue west, or change
directions?” Cain asked.

“Let’s go north,” Allison
suggested.

“North? Is that good with
everyone?” Cain asked, looking back at Vinnie and Ruby.

They both nodded.

“Anything is better than this,”
Ruby said.

It was settled. They were on their
way, ready to change directions at the first opportunity. At the very moment
the RV pulled away, Jackson was back. He was standing out from the trees.
Allison was sure he had seen the tire being changed, and had to realize they
were moving once again. He looked angry and frustrated; Allison was glad for
that.

While they traveled, everyone was
now in a great mood, excited to be out of immediate danger. Ruby had decided to
begin training and teaching Allison as much as possible, starting that very
moment.

 She, Allison and Vinnie sat
together at the table going over the very basics of magic and ways to control
it. Allison learned fast.

“So basically, I can manipulate
objects and see visions of the future. Is there anything else?” Allison asked.

“Because that’s not enough,” Vinnie
said with amusement.

“Other than mixing potions and
doing spells, that’s it. That, however, is not limited to just those who have
natural magic abilities. It is about knowing what to mix and how to mix it,”
Ruby said, looking at Vinnie.

Ruby spent time with Vinnie,
teaching him about spells and identifying important roots, herbs and flowers.
He seemed interested in this aspect, more so than Allison.

“You may not possess the same magic
as Allison, but you can still play a key role when everything is said and
done,” Ruby told him. “Knowing how to make potions and such is a gift in
itself.”

It was dark when they finished
working on several aspects of magic, and Allison felt like they had
accomplished quite a bit. Ruby began making dinner from the limited supply of
food in the RV. They wanted to wait at least one full day before stopping
anywhere to stock up. Vinnie and Allison were relaxing in the back of the
camper, watching television. She was so glad that Cain had cable in this thing.
It made being cramped up all day a little more bearable.

Allison was petting Dru and
laughing at a rerun of
The Big Bang Theory
, when an image forced its way
into her mind. It was almost like a flash of lightning struck her brain. She
could see Adam talking to Sam at school.

“Have you heard from Vinnie or Allison?”
he was asking her.

She shook her head, “I called
Allison’s phone yesterday, but it rang and went to voicemail. Vinnie doesn’t
have a cell phone. I thought about calling Ruby, but I was going to give it
another day.”

“Is it like them to just miss school?”

“Not Vinnie, Allison misses quite a
bit sometimes.”

“Would you show me their house
after school? I’d like to check on them.”

Jane was listening to their
conversation from her locker.

Allison blinked and found herself
staring at the television once again. Her first thought was happiness. Sam had
called her cell phone to check on them. Maybe their friendship could be
repaired after all. That feeling of triumph and hopefulness was soon replaced
by a sense of dread that crept into her chest and stomach. Adam knew they were
gone. He was playing some angle with Sam, and Allison did not like it. She had
to know more. She shut her eyes and concentrated on bringing back the vision.