Spellbound (17 page)

“Battled?” Lily raised an eyebrow at her son. “Logan, did you forget to tell me something?” She sounded concerned, but it impressed me how she managed to keep her cool. Logan must get his composure from her. He always seemed so unflappable to me.

Aha. Another piece of the Logan puzzle fell into place.

“I didn’t want to worry you, Mom. Besides, I handled it.”

Logan said, with just a hint of pride.

“And he will again.” This came from Prudence. I remembered her as the clairvoyant. She had been silent during the evening, but she had been watching the previous exchange with great interest. Everyone in the room listened to her. “I foresee another great battle in his future. He will prevail, but there will be a great loss to him.”

Cordelia leaned forward and spoke to Prudence.

“Is there anything more, Pru? Can you foretell the setting?

Or who is there with him or who he is battling?”

Prudence remained silent for a moment or two and the room held its collective breath. Finally she spoke. “I envision a dark area outside, heavily wooded, thick with trees.” She paused and seemed to strain, as if to picture something beyond all of us. She blinked, once, then twice, and then shook her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t have anything else. It must not be happening soon or the vision would be much clearer to me. But I do know it will be out of doors.” She pointed outside the double French doors. “Isn’t there a forest just beyond the back yard here?”

“Yes, there is.” Elizabeth spoke up. “When we first moved in, Tabitha and I went hiking back there. It’s exactly as Prudence described it, thick with trees, quite beautiful during the daytime, in fact. But I can imagine how it would be at night. It could be a foreboding place.”

Lily spoke then.

“Do you know why the Council is interested in Logan and Serena?”

Interestingly, Finola fielded this one.

“We do, actually. And at first, we thought it was only Serena with whom they had interest. But your recent revelations have turned that theory upside down. And then Logan himself proved he not only had powers, but he could bloody well use them too.” I hadn’t before noticed her English accent, but it was quite pronounced now. “So we had to rethink our program. When we realized why Christophe wanted Serena, it made sense to us. When we found out about Logan, it made
perfect
sense to us. Christophe is trying to make the most powerful witch ever created. And he wants to use Serena to do it.” She paused, as if she wasn’t sure everyone would be ready for the next part. I could see Eden silently nodding at her to go on.

“At first we were afraid he wanted to use his own seed,” I almost gagged when she said that part, “and that may still be his plan. But since he made his move at the warehouse, we have to work on the assumption that he is aware of Logan’s lineage and his gene pool potential. Now, instead of using a diluted gene of Serena’s, even as powerful as it is, he may be working on the theory of using the genes from two equally gifted donors.” She glared at Logan when she said that. He just seemed startled. I realized that he hadn’t put it all together till now. I peeked over at Lily and found just the opposite. She understood everything that Finola told her. And she came across as a little stunned.

“You mean he’s trying to create some kind of super-‐-witch?”

“Actually,” began Eden, “we think he wants to start with Serena and Logan and create a race of super-‐-witches that would fall under his control. He isn’t happy with just taking over the existing witchdom; he wants to create his own. He is truly the embodiment of everything evil. It’s been coming for some time. He has been monitoring Serena for the past ten years, biding his time and grooming her for this. He made a mistake, though. He couldn’t have known about you, Lily.”

“If he’s so powerful, is there any way to stop him?” Lily wanted to know.

“Yes. We believe so. We want to take over the Council.

Before we can do any of that, however, we need to protect all of you, twenty four hours a day.”

“How do you propose to do that? Logan and Jade go to school. We can’t be expected to change our lives for this. I made a decision long ago to run and hide and it cost me my husband. I don’t ever want to do that again.”

“Mom!” The anguish in Logan’s voice tore me in half. I could sense in Lily’s eyes that it did the same thing to her. She must not have told her son her suspicions, that as we knew the Council played a part in my parents’ demise, so did she believe they were responsible for his father’s accident as well. She reached over and hugged Logan.

“I couldn’t tell you, son, not until I made sure. Now, tonight, hearing all of this, I just know it. The Council has always been evil and I fell out of favor when I turned my back on the only way of life I thought I knew.”

Just like my mom, I thought.

Lily focused back on Eden.

“How do you propose to protect my children, and Serena, Elizabeth and Tabitha?” She asked the question regarding all five of us as a mother would.

This time Raven stepped forward. I almost got dizzy. There were so many of them.

“I traveled with several more friends than you know about.”

She twisted to the side and whistled. All of a sudden, four beautiful dogs padded into the room. They were Labrador, German shepherd mix, not puppies, but not full adults either. They sniffed around and went immediately to Raven’s feet. They didn’t bark or jump, just whimpered a little and obediently lay down in a row right on the floor. Raven leaned down and spoke gently to two of them and they got up and trotted over to Logan and me. I reached down to pet the one nearest me and she glanced up at me with sweet brown eyes and that did it. For the second time in this little town, I fell in love. She nuzzled me with her cold nose to pet her and I laughed and gave her what she wanted, stroking the short, spiky fur around her nose and down her strong, muscular back. I peeked over at Logan and found him bonding with the dog near him as well.

“What’s her name, Raven?” I asked.

“She doesn’t have one yet. In fact, none of them do. Logan, you and Serena will name your protectors as you see fit. And make no mistake, as loveable as they seem, they are trained to protect you to the death.”

I gazed into the gentle, sweet face of my new constant companion and couldn’t imagine her doing anything more vicious than ripping apart a sock. But I had no reason to doubt Raven either. Elizabeth had gone to collect Tabitha and Jade and they were delighted with their new additions. In minutes our den floor became a mass of rolling bodies and four-‐-legged friends. The girls had each named their dogs immediately. Jade named hers Sage and Tabitha came up with River. Everyone thought they were terrific names. And, despite the fact that all the dogs were female, Logan had named his Charlie. I had a hard time coming up with the perfect name for my charmer. Loveable and endearing, sure, but I wanted her to have a name worthy of her if it came time for battle. I petted her absentmindedly when it came to me. I would name her Zena, after the warrior princess.

“How do you like that, precious?” I asked her, stroking her soft fur. “Zena, my little warrior. Will that work?” In response, Zena reached up and gave me wet, slobbery kiss on my face. It seemed like it
would
work. She wagged her tail like mad. We all took our dogs out back for a run and made them big thick steaks to welcome them to the family. I had my suspicions they would earn their keep.

While the dogs were finishing their special meal and getting acquainted with everyone and their surroundings, Logan had a question.

“Raven, why are they all female? Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” He hastened to add, eyeing the room full of women.

“Because the relationship of a female dog and her master has the same dynamic of a mother and a child. And a mother will stop at nothing to protect her young. In my opinion, a female dog is a superior protector to a male dog for that reason alone.”

Murmurs of approval rose up all around and, as if to cement their understanding of their role, all four dogs began to wag their tails and lick the hands of their new charges.

I had a thought.

“What about Elizabeth? And Lily? How will they be protected? The dogs are wonderful,” All four of them barked in response and I petted them, “but I only count four of them. How will we protect Elizabeth and Lily when they leave the houses? I’m guessing they’re not as powerful as any of you.” I gestured to the magnitude of collective talent currently seated in my den.

Raven was ready for the question. She pointed to the entrance of the hallway and in strode two of the most beautiful Persian cats I had ever seen. They moved languidly and with a feline grace. The white one with glittering emerald eyes leapt from the floor to a credenza, then to the back of the sofa where my sister sat. It stepped down into my sister’s lap, padded around in a circle looking for a comfortable position, then settled down, fluffing its tail as it did. Immediately, it began to purr. The second cat, with satiny gray long hair, curled around the legs of a side table and pounced high in the air and landed soundlessly on the cushion next to Lily. It too, kneaded the pillow looking for a resting spot and then curled up happily next to Logan’s mom.

“Meet Astrid and Sheba. Unlike dogs, cats name themselves.

Please don’t try to rename them. Trust me, it won’t take. Despite their size, these protectors will fight just as fiercely as their more muscular counterparts for their masters.

Raven stood. “So, these animals will be with you at all times.

Logan, Serena, Tabitha, Jade, even when you are in school, your furry protectors will be close by. You can be assured that even if you don’t spot them, they will be there. Girls,” she addressed me, Jade and Tabby, “you can summon your animal with just a thought. Logan, you will work at learning how to do that. Raven will work with you on that.” Raven nodded.

Eden stood and joined Raven.

“I think we’ve all had enough excitement tonight, don’t you think. At least for a school night.” Everyone agreed and began gathering themselves to end the evening. Lily stood up holding her new cat and they gave the impression they had been together forever. Sheba slept in her arms and purred peacefully. Jade and Sage had bonded quickly and as Jade left the room, Sage trotted obediently after her. Logan whispered sweetly to Charlie, who gazed back at him with her large, brown trusting eyes. Eden’s coven sisters thanked Lily for coming over and Lily embraced each one in turn, still holding a sleeping Sheba in her arms.

Elizabeth played quietly with Astrid, who turned out to be a happy, playful cat, and Tabitha seemed overjoyed with her new protector, River. Everyone had a warm, wonderful feeling and clearly, they had enjoyed themselves. If I had any idea it would be the last time we would all be together like this, I would have paid more attention. I could not have known it would be the last time we would be this happy.

Chapter Eighteen

JADE

We said our goodbyes and hurried across the street to our own house. It had been a weird and wild night over at Serena’s, like they all were, but I felt glad to be home. I loved my new dog!

Sage just became the best present in the world! Logan’s dog Charlie made for an awesome protector too, but I knew my dog won out as best. She just seemed sweeter. And I hadn’t seen Mom this happy since Dad died. She hadn’t put her cat down since she jumped into her lap at Serena’s house over an hour ago. So great to see her laugh and smile so much!

I feigned sleepiness and headed straight up to my room with Sage. I had some anxiety being on my own. Mom thought I might be tired from being over-‐-stimulated, but that wasn’t it. Tabitha knew the truth, but I had sworn her to secrecy and we had pinky-‐-

promised and everything. I couldn’t wait to get home because Sully would be calling.

So far we had been careful because Sully thought my brother would kill him dead if he ever found out. He had a million reasons why. First, he said, my being only fifteen mattered. Even though I argued I’d be sixteen in two weeks which meant I could be called
this close
to being sixteen and therefore only a year and a half younger than him, he said it didn’t count. Second, he said, he hadn’t asked permission to date me. This apparently, became a HUGE deal. Third, as a sophomore, this technically qualified me as a Squeaker, and he and Dave and Sully had a pact or something about not dating Squeakers. He had, like, a million more reasons, but I didn’t care. I was crazy about Sully and had been since the third grade. So when he started noticing me I thought I had to be imagining it. The first time he called my cell phone, I thought it must have been a mistake, because Logan and I had numbers that were one digit off from one another’s. But it happened again. And again. And pretty soon, long as it took me to catch on, I realized that Sully liked me. He liked me as much as I liked him. So we started meeting at the deserted drive-‐-in at the edge of town. He always acted like a perfect gentleman. Mostly, we just held hands and kissed. But I went crazy, mad, insane, losing my mind over him.

Just then my cell phone rang. I snatched it up before it even finished the first ring.

“Hello?”

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

“Just get back?”

“Yeah. Guess what? I have a dog!”

“No foolin’? What kind?”

I hope the kind that can’t read my mind, I suddenly thought.

I leaned over the end of the bed, but Sage snored softly on the rug.

Doesn’t look magic, I thought. I’ll have to remember to ask.

“I think it’s a Lab-‐-Shepherd mix,” I answered Sully. “I named her Sage. She’s asleep on the floor right now.”

“That’s great, Jade. I can’t wait to meet her. I miss having a dog. I miss you too.”

“Me too.” I still couldn’t get over the fact that this big, jock friend of my brother’s could be a big ole’ softy.

“I better let you go now. Don’t want to keep you on the phone too long.” He always worried my brother would walk in on me while we were on the phone and figure out who I might be talking to and blow his cover. How, I didn’t know. But he had serious paranoia about it.