Mark of the Witch (Boston Witches) (19 page)

“I’m coming. I wanted to go in before, but I felt weird about leaving you. Now I’m glad I waited.” Caroline hugged her sister fiercely.

They both looked at Emily.

“I’m going to sit this one out; today has been rough on this pregnant body of mine.”

Jilly hugged Emily fiercely. “I love you,” she whispered. “We’re setting a protective bubble around you before we go in; I can’t leave you out here alone without it.”

Emily smiled. “I love you too, Jill. Now get in there and kick some ass,” she said.

Caroline and Jilly got up and held hands, both closing their eyes as they chanted the spell. A second later, Emily was safely encased in a protective bubble, and the sisters walked slowly over to the cave, gaining speed once Jilly could manage it.

*

William had finally found Mary. She was hiding behind a large rock formation near the back of the cave.

“So you found me. What are you going to do, kill me?” she sneered at him.

“No, but I aim to inflict as much damage as I can,” he yelled back.

She darted out from behind the rocks and slashed at his face with her nails. Momentarily distracted by the bleeding gash across his cheek, she slipped by him and ran toward the mouth of the cave.

Dropping his torch, William wiped at the blood flowing down his face. Shaking his head to clear it, he took off after her in the darkness. He heard a scream and sped up.

When he got to Mary, she was fighting with someone. Caroline was standing off to the side watching. Jilly had called forth the elements; her hair was whipping around her, and ropes of fire came pouring out of her hands, coiling around Mary. Mary shrieked in pain, trying frantically to free herself.

William let out a whoop of joy and rushed into the fight. Pulling Jilly away from Mary, he hugged her tightly before turning back to the fight. Jilly reached for his hand, and they cast a quick protective bubble around themselves and Caroline.

“We need to keep her in the cave,” William whispered.

Mary stalked around them like a lioness hunting her prey.

Jilly squeezed William’s hand tightly and burst out of the bubble, snatching a rock off the floor as she ran. She hurled the rock at Mary, and it struck her in the temple, knocking her down, blood seeping out of the wound. She wasn’t moving, so they assumed she was probably knocked out and they quickly ran out of the cave.

William raised an eyebrow. “I know, sometimes it’s easier to not use magic. Plus it worked, right?”

Jilly kissed him quickly before grabbing his hand again. They quickly began to say the words to the spell over and over. Their bodies began to glow, and a faint bluish light slowly crept up the mouth of the cave. They chanted until the light had reached the top of the cave, and suddenly a layer of granite covered the opening.

“Is this what happened with Patrick?” Jilly asked, catching her breath.

“Similar. There was already a covering to the tomb we used, but the blue light was there.” William crushed her to his chest, hugging her tightly. “I thought I’d lost you.” His voice was thick with emotion.

Hugging him back, Jilly kissed his cheek. “I don’t remember what happened; I just remember closing my eyes, and a second later opening them and finding Caroline and Emily sobbing over me. What does this mean?”

“I’m guessing it means that you’re an amaranthine. Apparently it runs in your family.” He smiled down at her.

“So how are we getting home now?” Caroline asked with a laugh.

Katya and Nic emerged from the forest, looking quite worse for the wear.

“Where on earth have you guys been?” Caroline asked.

“Dealing with the three witches Mary had hired,” Katya said.

“Oh yeah, I wondered where they went after Mary went in the cave,” Emily said. “Does anyone have a phone?” she asked. William grabbed his phone and handed it to Emily. She dialed her home number. “Adam?” she said when he answered.

“Emily? Are you ok? What happened? Where are you?” he shot out.

“I’ll explain everything later, but right now we need you to come get us. I’m going to pass you over to William for directions.” She handed to phone to William and sat back down next to where Jilly was standing.

Jilly sat down, finally feeling the effects of the day’s events. Everything hurt; the wound from the knife was now scabbed over and bruised, and her cheek was still bruised and bloody. She looked at Caroline and saw that she wasn’t doing much better. She held out her hand for her sister to come over to her.

“I’m sorry for everything that’s happened, Car,” she said softly.

Caroline shrugged. “I’m not, Jill. Out of everything that’s happened to us this past week, none of it is our fault. If anything, it’s brought all of us closer together. I finally have the family I’ve been missing since Mom died. If I had to get bloodied up a bit to get it, then so be it.”

Jilly smiled at the determination in Caroline’s voice. “I’ve always been here waiting. I’m glad that you finally came home.”

The sisters hugged tightly, tears falling down their faces. Emily smiled, happy to see the sister’s together again after all these years.

When William hung up he said, “He’ll be here soon. We should probably go wait by the road.”

As they started to leave, they heard Mary screaming in fury from the inside of the cave. Jilly smiled as they began walking toward the woods. “Serves her right.”

Adam picked them up about an hour and a half later. He arched an eyebrow as he took in their appearance. He jumped out of the car and hugged Emily tightly to him. Once he was certain his wife was ok, he turned back to Jilly. “Jill, you look like you’ve been murdered.”

She let out a hysterical laugh, and clapped her hand over her mouth. “Something like that,” she said dryly.

They drove home in almost complete silence; Adam finally gave up on small talk thankfully, although he kept an iron grip on Emily’s hand the entire drive home.

When Adam pulled up in front of the Proctor house, Jilly got out and walked over to the driver’s side. She leaned in the window and kissed his cheek. “Thanks for getting us, Adam. I’ll let Em fill you in on what just happened. The only things I’m capable of doing right now are taking a long hot shower and going to bed.”

Adam nodded and squeezed her hand. Jilly watched them pull out of the driveway before turning back to the house. Nikolai and Katya were walking toward their car. Katya waved as they got in.

They trudged up the back steps and Jilly unlocked the door to the house. They filed through the kitchen and went straight up the stairs to their respective rooms to clean up.

William grabbed Jilly’s hand as she was opening her door. “Come to my room when you’re done.” Something in his eyes made her stomach quiver.

She nodded and went straight into her room and closed the door behind her. Trudging to the bathroom, she stripped off her filthy clothes as she went. She turned on the shower and stood in front of the mirror, waiting for the water to heat up. She had a huge bruise covering one cheek, and a smaller one along with a cut on the other. Her chest was covered in dried blood, but the knife wound was nothing more then a scabbed together cut. She ran her fingers over it, marveling at how fast it had healed. She had a bunch of smaller bruises covering her arms and legs, but nothing else seemed to be wrong.

She stepped into the shower and stood under the hot spray for a full five minutes before moving. She washed her hair twice, and washed every inch of her grimy body, paying close attention to the dried blood on her chest. She scrubbed until the water running down the drain turned from brownish-red to clear and her skin was pink and clean. Reluctantly she turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, wrapping herself in a big fluffy robe. Pausing to wind her hair up in a towel, she went out into her room to get dressed. Her bed looked very inviting, but it was going to have to wait. She pulled on an old pair of sweats and a tank top, and grabbed some socks on her way out of the room.

She knocked on William’s door, and he opened it immediately. His hair was wet, and he was similarly dressed in sweats and a white t-shirt.

She sat on his bed and pulled on her socks. “So does this mean I’m going to live forever now? Is Caroline an amaranthine too?”

“I don’t know. There is a lot I still don’t understand about what we are. As for Caroline, it’s hard to say. It does run in families, and we know that Mary was one, but no one else in your family line has been one since. I would say that there is a chance that she is, but a better chance that she isn’t.”

“Did you mean it when you told me you loved me?” Jilly asked shyly.

William laughed, his eyes narrowing. “I thought you said you didn’t remember anything? Yes, I meant it, and I mean it now too. I love you, Jilly.”

“I meant it too, William,” Jilly said in almost a whisper. “After everything that’s happened to us this week, I can honestly say that I love you too. I know it’s only been a week, but I feel like I’ve known you my whole life.”

She kissed him softly, her arms winding around his back, pulling him into her. He deepened the kiss, pulling the towel from her hair, enjoying the smell of her shampoo and the feel of her damp locks against his skin. She let herself go completely and gave in to the fire that was burning inside of her. She wasn’t planning on stopping this time. She remembered all too well the burn of his lips against her skin, and this time she wanted it to be her face that he saw.

They were interrupted by a knock at the door. They sprang apart as Caroline walked in. “I thought I heard you guys in here,” she said, and then she noticed the look on their faces and tried to backtrack. “Oh, well, um, I’ll see you guys downstairs…”

“No, no, we’re coming too,” Jilly said, suppressing a sigh. They followed Caroline down to the kitchen.

*

A week later, Jilly was back to work, enjoying the feeling of her scissors in her hand. This was her first day back since everything had happened, and it felt immensely good.

It was almost the end of her day, and she looked up when she heard the door chime. Her face lit up when she saw William walk through the door.

“Hey. I’ll be off in fifteen minutes; you can go back and wait in my office if you want,” she said, blushing.

Her client was one of her regulars, and she winked at Jilly in the mirror. “So, is this your new young man?”

Jilly blushed. “Yeah, that’s William.”

“It’s good to see you happy, Jilly. It’s been far too long since I’ve seen you smile that way.”

Jilly finished the haircut and walked her client up to the reception desk. “Ok, so I’ll see you in six weeks, Maggie.”

“Thanks again, Jilly,” Maggie said warmly.

With a final wave, Jilly went back to her station to clean up for the day. She caught Emily’s eye and waved good-bye as she went back to her office. When she opened the door, she found William seated behind her desk, flipping through an old issue of Behind the Chair magazine.

“Anything interesting in there?” she asked as she walked over to him and ruffled his hair before dropping a kiss on his forehead.

“Oh yeah,” he said sarcastically, “they have an interesting article about this season’s hottest fringe. I think I would look good with a side bang, don’t you?”

She punched him lightly in the arm and grabbed her purse from the desk drawer. “Ok, I’m ready to go if you are.” They headed out the back door to her car. “Are you parked out front?” she asked as she looked around for his car.

“No, I walked actually; it’s nice out and I didn’t feel like having two cars tonight. Do you mind driving?”

“Fine with me,” she said as she unlocked the doors. She still felt slightly nervous around William; there was a crackle of electricity in the air whenever she was near him.

“Do you mind if we stop by my house so I can change before the movie? I’ve got hair all over me.”

“That’s fine, we still have plenty of time. Is Caroline home tonight?”

Jilly made a rude noise. “Yeah, she’s home. She’s still figuring out what she wants to do about Jack. She’s driving me nuts though. She’s so mopey all the time. Unless she’s training, she’s moping.”

William laughed. “Well, I guess you should keep her training then. Just give her some time, Jilly; she’ll figure it out. The past few weeks haven’t really been the relaxing time she thought she’d be having when she came home.”

Jilly sighed. “I know. It’s just hard dealing with her sometimes.”

She pulled the car in the driveway behind Caroline’s car. She grabbed her stuff from the back and they climbed the steps to the front door.

“Caroline, I’m home, and William’s with me,” she yelled as they came through the door. “Ok, I’m going to go get ready; I’ll be down in like thirty minutes or so. You can go on up to the den or stay down here. Whatever you want to do is fine.”

“Don’t worry about me; I know where everything is,” William said with a wink.

As Jilly climbed the stairs, he went into the kitchen to grab a Coke. He found Caroline sitting at the table on the phone. She looked up and waved weakly when he came in. He nodded and went to grab his soda. He hurried back out to the living room so he wouldn’t interrupt her and turned on the TV.

Jilly came down thirty minutes later dressed in tight jeans and a wine colored v-neck t-shirt. She left her hair down since she knew William liked that, and it floated past her shoulders in soft waves.

He smiled warmly when he saw her. “You look amazing.”

She blushed. “Thanks. Are you ready?” She grabbed her purse and keys and they headed out to the car. “Caroline, we’re leaving,” she called out as they left.

“Did you see her at all while I was getting ready?” she asked as they got into the car.

“Yeah, she was in the kitchen on the phone when I grabbed a Coke. I think she was talking to Jack; she didn’t look happy at all.”

“I wish she would just end it with him and be done with it. Anyways, enough about her problems. How was your day?”

William shrugged. “It was ok, I just unpacked the whole day.”

They got to the theater with ten minutes to spare, and grabbed some sodas and popcorn before heading to their seats. As the lights went down, Jilly leaned her shoulder into him and settled in.