Luminescence (Luminescence Trilogy) (25 page)

Lily lightly helped me softly on the pillow. “Easy,” she encouraged.

“Bri,” Gavin breathed on a sigh of relief.

I groaned. Their voices so close to my hammering head
blasted
pain to my temples.
“Sorry,” I
squeaked.
My own sounded
scratchy and hoarse.

“Don’t try and move too much. You need to rest your voice,” Lily said filled with motherly concern.

I wasn’t sure how much I could even if I wanted to. Everything felt bruised, battered and sore.
“What happened?”

“How about we tal
k about it after you get better?
I don’t think you are in much shape to have the kind
of conversation this would take,
”
Lily suggested. “I’ve got to grab a few things.” I watched her walk from the room.

“That complex hun?” Like everything lately in my life it seemed.

Gavin smirked
down at me, a
strand of his dark hair falling over the eye with the silver bar.
“What fun would it be without a little excitement and a
dead witch haunting your dreams?
”
He sat down on the bed beside me
and took my hand
.
“How are you feeling?”

I closed my eyes for a moment. “I’ve been better.”

His expression
flickered with a flash of anger.

“Don’t,” I croaked, my throat was so dry.

He handed me a glass of water and Lily came
back into the room.
She held a potion I was sure wa
s going to taste like bitter vinegar
or worse.
My facial expression must have given away my disgust.

She laughed lightly. “It’s not as bad as it looks. I promise and it will speed your healing time. That kind of trumps the taste.”

She had me there. At this point anything to relieve the discomfort was a blessing. Helping
me
to a sitting position, she propped a mound of fluffy pillows
behind my back
. Wrinkling my nose I gave the seaweed green mixture a look of repugnance.
My stomached turned just on sight, even though the
scent
wasn’t what I expected. The smell was a cross between citrus limes and clover herbs. Not altogether bad, but I wouldn’t drink it voluntarily if it wasn’t a matter of easing my
aches
.

Taking a deep breath, I sucked it up and took a giant gulp. Getting it down my throat was another matter entirely. I
’ve
always had a sensitive gag reflex. Embarrassing
me
further was not an option, so I forced it down and was pleased when it went smoothly.

“
There you go dear,” Lily coaxed.
“Lie back down for an hour or so and you will start to feel the effects.” She smoothed the hair that stuck to my face unflatteringly.

“What time is it? Will I be able to get home soon?” It occurred to me that my aunt probably didn’t know I was missing and if I could keep it that way – even better. I didn’t want her stressing about me anymore than necessarily, especially with all the responsibility she shoulder
ed
from owning her own business.
The last thing she needed was to think she had some out-of-control teen on her hands. I’d been a model one so far.

“
It’s a little past one p
.
m. I think we’ll be able to sneak you home before morning,” she said winking.

I smiled as best as I could in return and relaxed more deeply on the pillows.
She patted my cheek before leaving. Sophie replaced her at my bedside.

“Hey there,” she said.

“Hey yourself,” I managed.

A tear slipped from the side of her eye, she wiped
it
away with the back of her hand.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m crying… You really scared me tonight.
When Gavin brought you inside –” Her voice stumbled on her tears.

“Sophie, I’m fine.” I grabbed her hand. “
I’m just a little weak and my mind is fuzzy, stop worrying.”

“I know. You’re just the only real friend I have here,” she said squeezing my hand.

“I’m glad were friends.” And it was true. I might not be the most popular or the friendliest, but I was close to the friends I had and was lucky to have Sophie as one of them.

True to
Lily’s
words I started feeling better. Magic can hurt but it can also heal –
quickly
.
Sophie lent me a change of clothes; the warm sweats made me feel like me again or as close as I could come to being normal.
She gave me a long hug.

Gavin drove me home in his mom’s car sometime in the wee hours of the morning. I felt better but was still so tired after the long night this was turning out to be. The picture
of my own familiar bed sounded like heaven. I studied Gavin at the wheel and didn’t know what I would have done if he hadn’t been there tonight, if wasn’t here for this huge transformation my life was undergoing. I felt more connected to him then ever.

“
About tonight –” I started before he cut me off.

“Don’t say anything. This wasn’t your fault.”

“But it is,” I insisted.

“Bri you are different, I’ve never met a witch like you. There is something about your energy and tonight I felt that same substance or whatever it is in Morgana.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know… yet.
What I do know is that you need to rest. We can talk about this all later,” he said as we pulled into my driveway. The sun
was
barely beg
inning to rise behind the hou
se, framing the yard in a halo.

“Fine,” I huffed. “
I’m not dropping this.”

He raised his eyebrow, knowing very well that this wasn’t t
he last he’d hear
of
this
conve
rsation. “I never thought you were
.”

“
How are we getting in?”
I asked, yawning.

He smirked. “I got this.”

Like I ever doubted him, when it came to breaking the rules Gavin knew how to work it.
I didn’t ask what spell he was weaving, I really didn’t want to know, just as long as my aunt didn’t find out and was
n’t
hurt.

W
alking into my bedroom was therapeutic in ways I never thought possible
. Collapsing on the bed, Gavin came over beside me and tucked me in. He brushed the hair from my face and pressed a light kiss on my forehead. “See you tomorrow. Sweet dreams Bri,” he whispered and a sparkling tingle of magic spread over my body.

Chapter
2
8

I
GOT TO STAY HOME
from school the
next two
day
s
even though I was feeling much better.
My aunt was hovering and beside herself over the fact that I was sick again. It wasn’t like me; I was usually very healthy and had been as a child. These last few weeks with everything going on put me on her radar, not a place I liked to be. But there was no way I could tell her what really happened, or that Gavin was a witch, let alone that I was a witch. I was too afraid to lose her.

Gavin was at my door the mo
ment my aunt left for the shop
on the second day
.
He checked on m
e
yesterday just like he said, though I spent more than half the day catching up on sleep, we never had a chance to really talk. Which was a blessing in disguise, because the more I had the chance to think over those nights events, the clearer I was that I had actually professed to loving him.
He hadn’t brought it up and I wasn’t about to. I knew
in my heart that
I loved him, but I wasn’t yet ready to vocalize that love (except of course unless I was threatened with death). So doing the mature decision I decided to ignore
what
ever
I
said or think I said. The events were still a little fuzzy.

“What are you doing here?”
I asked opening the door.
Fireflies
frolicked
at the sight of him, an indicator I
was
on the mend
.

“Checking up on you.”
He looked me up from head
-
to
-
toe and it had anything but an unhealthy affect on me. I’d say my body was pretty much healed.

My cheeks flushed and I cleared my throat.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in first period?”

“You’re more important.”

Flattered as I was, he needed to go to school, yet it didn’t stop me
from
smiling. “That’s crap. Go to school. I can’t have you failing.”

He smirked
, toying with his hoop
. “I won’t, nothing a little magic can’t fix.”

I gave him a stern look.

“It’s only one day Bri. I promise not to miss another day this…” he paused reconsidering what he was going to say. “Till winter break. Satisfied?”

“I guess.” There was a meow from under his jacket. “Why are you meowing?”

He grinned and pulled out a fluffy black kitten. “Ev
ery witch needs a cat,” he said, holding out a wriggling bundle of fur.

I c
ouldn’t help the cooing and ahh
ing, this was after all the cutest kitten on the planet. I took the kitten from Gavin and holding him over my head I looked into his sweet baby eyes. “You are absolutely adorable.” My heart tumbled for this itty-bitty little guy.
I never owned a pet before and I am sure we both in for a ride.
I snuggled him into my arms
and buried my face in his dark fur
.

“I talked to your aunt first and she said it was okay. I hav
e a trunk full of stuff for him,
”
he said watching me with amusement.

“He’s perfect, b
ut why the gift?”

“I told you, every witch needs one.”
His sapphire eyes sparkled. “Now… what are we going to name him?”

I was a little leery about his motives for giving me a
gift
.

“I was thinking Merlin,” he suggested.

I scrunched me nose. “To obvious.”

“You might be right, Gandalf?”

“That was a great movie,” I said smiling “but I’m thinking something original.”
Petting his tiny head, I noticed a small white crescent shape on the back of his neck, the only white spot on him
. “Lunar.”

“Lunar,” he said testing it out. Lunar let out the tiniest meow. “
I guess h
e likes it.”
He scratched the top of his furry head and purred on contact. The sounded vibrated though his little body. “Oh I forgot.
You’re
aunt
asked me to pick up your homework assignments for you.
”

“And how did you manage that if you didn’t go to school?”

“Do you really want to know?” His grin said that I defiantly didn’t want to know and no doubt involved a spell with some form of deception.

I shook my head.
“No, but I wished you’d spell it all finished.”

“Already did.”

“Gavin…” I groaned, giving him a look of steel.

“What? Your aunt just said to pick it up. She didn’t say anything about you actually having to do it. Look, I was worried about and you’re recovering. I didn’t want you stressing and laboring over school work. You can
’t
fault me for that.”

I groaned. “You are impossible.”

“So my parents tell me,” he said, but not like he really was offended by it. “How are you feeling,” he asked the mood changing in his eyes.
Concern replaced the light banter.

Sitting on the couch I placed the kitten in my lap.
“I’m fine. Stop asking.”
I stroked Lunar’s back as he tried to attack my fingers with his baby paws.

He sat down next to me, the couch sinking with his weight. “You look much better,” he said.

“I am,” I insisted. “In fact I’m going back to school tomorrow. Oh tell your mom I said thank you again. What she did for me saved me a lot of trouble.”

“She was glad to do it, but you know Bri that you are going to have to tell your aunt sometime,”
he stressed.
Another topic I wasn’t comfortable yet dealing with. At the rate my list of uncomfortable topics was growing, I was going to swimming over my head in problems.