The White Witch (17 page)

Keeping his eyebrow raised, he twists his mouth to the side. “Ooookay. Lay it on me.”

“The day you went to look for me in the park, I did meet with Gamaliel, like I told you and he did inform me about my past and all that. There is just one thing that I had to ask about and to explain it, he had to show me.” I look at Logan, waiting for a change in his expression, but the only change is that his mouth is now almost a thin line. I sigh before continuing. “Remember when I was missing and I told you that I thought I was in a house?”

“Yeah.”

“I really was. I was in his house. He made some tea to clear my head and tried telling me I had powers. That went over like a lead balloon and I decided to get the heck out of there. When I opened the door, I was back in the woods and his house was nowhere to be found. On my birthday I asked him how that was possible and he showed me. He said that very few beings are able to make portals. Usually Keepers of the Balance and of course, Angels and the fallen, the demons. He made one and took me through it.”

“So, someone makes a portal and you just hop right in?” Logan shakes his head. “What have I gotten myself into?” He lets out a sigh. “Well, at least it’s never going to be boring.” He ends with a slight chuckle.

I drop my brows and give a sarcastic smile.

“Anyway… I ended up in a forest in England. It’s the same forest where my ancestors were buried. I don’t know how, but I ended up walking straight to the burial site and as if I was there, I saw the events of that night.”

“That must have been kind of scary.” The sarcastic tone was gone and I can tell he really meant what he was saying.

“It was. It hurt to see it all. It was almost like I felt some of their pain. It was so weird.” I look down at my hands in my lap. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about that before. I just… I know you’re really understanding and have yet to have me committed, but I figured, I just couldn’t freak you out all at once. I mean, most people go into a relationship and have date nights, and movie time, and frolic on a beach, and make out while just hanging out, and I’m dragging you to meet my half witch half keeper aunt, forcing you to find out information about a psycho family member and keep an ass ton of secrets for me.” I stop my rambling, still staring at my hands.

“Frolic on a beach?” Logan asks in his most serious tone.

I look up at him and he’s smiling at me, causing me to burst into a fit of laughter. “Well, you know what I meant.” I say between laughs.

Logan takes a hand from my lap and puts it to his lips. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.” He gives me a wicked smile. “And for the record, we do have make outs while hanging out and I quite enjoy them.”

I feel the blush consume my body but I don’t turn away.

We meet Gamaliel at the coffee shop, this time sitting at a small table opposite where we usually sit in case the gunmetal grey SUV come looking, they won’t immediately see us.

“Are you serious?” Gamaliel folds his arms across his chest and leans back in a wooden seat.

“It will be quicker and cleaner than trying to…” I look around to ensure no one is listening. “trying to break a window or something.”

He leans forward onto the table and takes his black coffee in his hands, staring at the liquid until it starts to spin on its own.  “You do realize that I have never done this before and if I consider it now, it is only so we can finally put an end to this centuries old madness.”

“Well, it’s not like I will have other reasons to ever ask you again.” I take a sip of my chai and glance at Logan who has been silent for the most part.

“You will be sure that he will not be there?” Gamaliel sets his eyes on Logan.

“Yes. I can find out by tomorrow morning at the latest when we will be able to go.”

“Fine.” He gives in and takes a sip of the dark liquid bitterness in his cup. “We will meet where we made the portal last time.” He lifts his eyes over the cup and looks at me as he drinks the rest. “Also, the gunmetal grey SUV that has been following you, belongs to a colleague of Erebos. It appears he has a small handful of people he has convinced to be loyal to his ‘cause’ since from what my informants have been able to gather, there are none left in the Blackbourne family that will support him.”

“Why is that?” I ask, though I wouldn’t want them actually supporting him.

“Throughout the centuries, there were many that sought out forgiveness for what their ancestors did, thinking that they would somehow pay the price, or their children would. However, for a long time, there were those who insisted on ensuring that no revenge would ever be taken on a Blackbourne.” He turns the cup in his hands. “Pride covers a multitude of sins, it is said.” On the third spin, the cup is filled again with black coffee. “Those Blackbournes saw to it to go after Langley daughters, kill Keepers so that they can keep their identities safe, and even go against other Blackbournes who opposed them. As you can imagine, the Keepers and Langleys were not too keen on this and were not content to sit back and allow it, so they took matters into their own hands, dwindling their numbers. Erebos is the last, since his own father died several years ago. It is said that his father left him all he will need to know regarding you and what he needs to do to secure the Blackbourne future and re-instate the name.”

“And your informant is sure of this?”

“Yes. That is why I will agree to help you into his house.”

“Thank you Gamaliel.” I look at him, sorry that we have to ask him to do this.

“I don’t know. This is the first time this has ever happened, and magic evolves and de-evolves I cannot guarantee what you are capable of or will do.” He blurts out, prompting a questionable look from Logan.

“What?” I open my eyes wide and glance at Logan who is doing the same.

“Gamaliel, what are you talking about?” Logan puts his hands on the table in front of us.

“Just answering a question that Katelyn has been mulling over in her mind since I walked through the door. So much so, that I couldn’t help but see it.”

Logan turns his gaze on me, his eyes sad. “Are you afraid that you will hurt me?”

Gamaliel stands, drinking what is left of the coffee in his cup. “Goodnight you two. I expect a call or text in the morning.”

Logan flinches his gaze toward Gamaliel with a quick goodnight before focusing on me again. “Well?”

“Yes.” I feel my eyes water and I bite my lip to keep the tears from falling.

“You have to defeat a raging psycho who has been hunting you his whole life, along with others of his family, master your own powers, figure out his agenda and keep your parents safe and your biggest concern at the moment is whether or not you will hurt me?” He smiles until it reaches his eyes and wraps his arms around me, pulling me close until my head rests on his shoulder. “You really need to sort out your priorities.” He says in his best British accent quoting my favorite book and movie series.

I laugh as he holds me, but despite what he says and light mood he tries to create, there are still many more questions than answers.

Noooo! I scream as I stare at their lifeless bodies. The grass around them is soaked in their blood that I am guilty of spilling. I drop to my knees as the trees surrounding me begin to spin, Erebos’s laughter filling my ears. I take Logan’s lifeless body in my arms and shake him, begging him to wake. When he doesn’t, I put him down and crawl to my dad and Liz taking both their blood soaked hands in mine and putting them to my face, begging them to answer me, to move, to show some sign of life. I sob so hard, I feel nauseous. I stare at Gamaliel’s body in the distance and Erebos walks up behind me.

‘Do you see now, why you should not have these powers?’

My eyes glow blue and I feel a tingle in my hands. When I turn to face him, a blue light shoots out from my hands, blinding me and knocking us to the ground.

I wake up in a pool of sweat again and realize that at this rate, I may as well put benches in my room and call it a sauna. I sigh as I get up and grab a towel from my bathroom, throwing it on my bed. I lay on it and stare at the window, watching the rain drip down the glass through a crack between the curtains. I follow a single drop all the way down until it hits the outer frame and wonder if I can do it. If I can control the path I need to take to accomplish what I must. My thoughts are interrupted by the buzzing on my nightstand. I pick it up and wonder who could be texting me at six in the morning.

Logan – Can’t sleep, figured you would be up.

Me – Nightmare… can’t sleep either.

Logan – Wish I could help. Too bad you aren’t here.

Me – Wish I was.

I smile and think of what it would be like to be lying next to him right now. How he would have wrapped his arms around me, despite the sweat to comfort me from my nightmare.

I call him because the desire to hear his voice is not satisfied with just reading his messages.

“Hey Polo.” I say in a whisper as he picks up the phone.

“Hey Angel.” His voice is low and a bit raspy and I want to crawl through the phone and into his lap.

“Sorry, I just wanted to hear your voice.”

“Don’t ever be sorry for that, baby.” I hear a long yawn and picture him stretching, probably sleeping shirtless in his giant bed. “You should try and get more sleep though. Who knows what today will hold for us.”

“I know. I will try in a few. I can hear my dad and Liz getting ready to leave. They told me last night that they are taking a few days off to recover from last weekend’s craziness.”

“Where are they going?”

“Martha’s Vineyard. One of the skater’s parents has a house there and told them they could stay a few days.”

“That was nice of them.”

“Yeah it was.” I try and think of what the plans might be today once we know Erebos’s schedule, but my mind continues to wander to Logan.

“You ok? You’re kind of quiet.” His voice is still low and raspy and I feel like I should let him sleep, but I can’t.

“Just wishing I was there with you.”

“You and me both.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

“Do you sleep without a shirt?”

Logan chuckles and clears his throat. “Maybe you should come over and find out.”

I picture the sarcastic grin on his face, probably putting one arm behind his head while he lays with his sheets down around his waist, and his other hand over his six pack.
Well hell, this is what most teenage girls think of when they aren’t freaking out about powers, psychos and family curses
. I feel the heat rise in my body and I bite my lip, unable to get the image of him out of my head.
Yep, I bet he is totally rocking some sexy bed head too
.

“You have no idea how I would love to do that.”

“We will have to arrange that then.” His voice is less raspy and I realize that he is probably more awake.

“With this conversation, we are not going to get any rest at all.” I laugh.

He chuckles, “I don’t care about rest, I like where this conversation is headed. Besides, I haven’t asked what you are wearing.”

“Not so fast Polo. You want to know, you’ll have to be around one night to find out.”

Logan laughs out loud. A sound I have grown to love. “Don’t tempt me, Angel. You say that one more time and I will have to make it happen.”

I laugh lowly and speak slowly, “You’ll ...have ...to ...be ...around …one ...night ...to ...find ...out.”

Logan chuckles again and this time it’s low and sexy. “And you expect me to go back to sleep now?”

I giggle.

“What time are your parents leaving?”

“In about an hour.” I say warily.

“I’ll be there in an hour and ten minutes.”

“Oh no you don’t, Polo. You need to be there when your dad gets up so we can find out about his schedule and Erebos’s too.”

Logan groans. “Can’t I just call him from your house?”

“Um, I’m pretty sure that it won’t work the same.”

Logan sighs and groans at the same time making me laugh. “Fine, but this is far from over.”

“I’m counting on it. Now go back to sleep for a bit.”

“Right, that’ll happen.” I hear him shifting in his bed.

“Logan?”

“Yea, babe?”

“N-Nothing. Nevermind. I’ll see you later.”

“Okay. See you later.”

I hang up and stare at his picture on my phone.
I hope I don’t hurt him
.

After having the life scared out of me with my nightmare, I spend the rest of the morning practicing using my powers. I’ve managed to do well controlling elements, but I haven’t had practice with the mind and that concerns me. I mean, yeah, I can try to strike him down with lightning or something, but that’s not exactly an easy method. I try controlling the bursts of energy that seem to flow out of my hands, like the day I confronted Samantha, but it’s nowhere near as powerful as it was that day and I begin to assume that it’s fueled by emotions.
Shocker
.

I’m about to try it again when I hear the doorbell. I rush to the door knowing it’s Logan and yank it open.

“Hey there, Po…” I drop off at first glance of him. His eyes are solemn and there no trace of a smile. “Logan, what’s wrong?”

He shakes his head. “Got the information and texted it to Gamaliel. We can go tonight, there is some function that Erebos has to be at.”

I grab his hand and pull him in. “Um, that’s nice and all, but what is wrong?”

Logan takes a ragged breath. “They found more lesions on my mom’s MRI.”

“Wha.. what are you talking about? Lesions of what?”

“My mom has MS.”

“Wait, MS, as in Multiple Sclerosis? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well, in my defense, there has been a lot going on. Plus, we thought that she had it under control with this new experimental medication she was on.” I walk Logan over to my sofa where he buries his face in his hands.

“Well, can’t we find a witch or someone who has healing powers? Maybe they can…” I drop off when he shakes his head. “We tried. It doesn’t work that way. Most of the healing we can do is superficial, or relative to emotions, for some it’s only strictly for the earth. Healing on that scale is a miracle and only God has that power.”

“Wait,
we
can do?” I slid two fingers under his chin and lift his face towards me. “Logan, I thought you said you can’t heal others?”

“I can’t, but I am considered a healer as well as those who can.” He sighs and leans back. “I know I’m being over dramatic. I should be lucky that it’s not something she will die from, just die with, but I know the pain it causes her, and it hurts me to see her like that.”

“You’re not being dramatic. You’re being a great son.” I reach over, putting my arms around him and pulling him towards me until his head is on my chest and I am running my fingers through his hair. All this time I have been trying to solve my own problems and never once thought that he could be going through something. We sit like that for at least fifteen minutes, in silence, just being there.

“Can I try something?”

Logan lifts his head and tilts it to the side as I take his hands in mine. “I know you can give your calm and happiness, but have you ever tried to take any from anyone?”

He gives a crooked smile. “No one has ever offered.”

“I’m offering.” I don’t know if it’s something I can do, but I try none-the-less to picture my own hope and calm going into him.

Logan closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Pressing his hands against mine. We sit that way for a few minutes before he says anything. “For someone so cynical, you carry a lot of hope.” He opens his eyes and smiles.

My heart leaps and I literally feel his emotions changing. “Logan.” His name escapes my lips as he brings his hand to my cheek. He brushes his lips against mine and kisses them softly.

We spend the afternoon practicing my powers. Logan lets me try to enter his mind, but instead of just letting me, he fights back since I know it won’t be that easy with Erebos. I manage to make it in, and even get a few flashes of his thoughts. Quite a bit were of us, one of which he shut me out of fast and I’m thinking it had to do with this morning’s conversation because I thought I saw a blush creep across his face.

At eight o clock we jump in his car and head to the beach to meet Gamaliel. I had called and asked why we couldn’t just make the portal in the forest behind my house, but he doesn’t want to risk it, in case someone is home and tries following us through.

The beach has a few more cars than I would have thought with couples walking along the walkways and shoreline. Gamaliel sits alone at the bench where we usually have our conversations.

My stomach is turning over on itself in fear of finding Erebos at his home. If he was willing to threaten us in Logan’s home, I shudder to think what he would do in his own. We walk up to the bench and without turning around, Gamaliel acknowledges us. As we round the seat, he stands.

“Are you ready?” He asks solemnly.

“You do not seem very certain about wanting to do this.”

“It is not the act, because I know it is necessary, though I am not happy about it. It is the possibility of finding the unknown that I am preparing myself for.”

I squeeze Logan’s hand as we fall into step behind the Keeper. Luckily there is no one too close when we sneak into the group of trees. Gamaliel wastes no time finding the same two trees we used to go to England.

He creates the portal and walks through and I have to almost literally close Logan’s mouth for him. As we step through, we come in the doorway of what seems like a den. There is a desk and shelf sparse with books behind us. I try to take the lead, but Logan pulls me back.

“If anyone is going to get hurt because we are here, it’s me.” He whispers though it’s loud enough for Gamaliel to hear. “If he is here, you need to get back to the doorway and get out.”

“No way am I goin-” I begin to harshly whisper before I’m interrupted.

“He is right.” Gamaliel jumps in.

I huff and roll my eyes, but see no point in arguing with both of them.

We walk down the dark and empty hallway to the living room. The furniture is plain and very modern, overtly simple if you ask me. The entire home lacks a sense of invitation. It’s cold, though thinking of its owner, it’s really no surprise.

Logan walks over to the front windows and looks outside to ensure that Erebos’s car is not parked in the driveway.

“Looks like he’s gone, but he’s not much of a socializer, so I wouldn’t take too long. We need to do what we came to do and get the hell out of here.”

“If only we knew what exactly we are here to do.” I say looking around the naked living room.

We walk the house together, peering into rooms and the silence and eeriness of the house eats at me. I’m already itching to get out of here. It’s not until we pass by his sliding glass door that I stop. It’s dark outside so it’s hard to see, but in the distance I see a fire pit with several wooden stakes and stands around it. Logan stops beside me and glares out as well.

“Well, that can’t be good.” He says as he grabs my hand and pulls me along.

We walk into the strangely sterile master bedroom and begin to search around the closet and drawers careful not to leave any trace of intrusion but come up empty. We walk back into the hallway and search the other almost empty rooms and come up with nothing.

I stand in the hallway frustrated with our results. “I can’t fathom that there is nothing here, linking him to his family, or to magic or his psychotic tendencies!” I lean back on the wall behind me and it gives way. Logan reaches out, catching my hand in his before I begin a backwards descent down a stairway.

He pulls me close and immediately puts me behind him. He takes his cell phone out of his pocket and turns on the light. The basement is dreary and musty and the smell of several different herbs assault us at once.