Unbound (27 page)

The water stung the fresh cuts on my forearms. I had a lump on the back of my head. I couldn’t remember why. I sank back into bed as soon as I got out of the shower. Flashes of last night played in my mind. The phone call Ethan got. Setting my cup down to go outside with him. Mike following me. Pain. He threw his beer bottle at my head. That was when I fell. The next thing I remembered was seeing him fly through the air like a pair of invisible hands lifted him off of me. There was something there with us, something familiar. I had felt it before. I knew what it was but I just couldn’t think of it.

“Anora?” Ethan quietly called. My eyes flew open. “You ok?”

I sat up, remembering at the last minute that I was still only wearing a towel. “Yea. I just feel sorta weak, that’s all.”

“You probably will tomorrow too.” He joined me in bed.

“Yay. I feel like I’m getting over the flu or something.” A chill came over me. Ethan pulled the covers up to my neck. “What happened with Sam last night? Is she ok?”

“It was as false alarm. She said she heard voices and saw shadows outside her door, but no one else was home. She said she couldn’t get a hold of anyone else, but when I asked Jewls, she said Sam never called her.” Ethan hugged me. “I don’t know why she panicked like that. She knows how to handle this.”

Not knowing what to say, I returned the hug.

“If I didn’t leave, none of this would have happened to you.” His voice was full of regret.

“You can’t blame yourself, Ethan.”

He just sighed. “Yes, I can. Close your eyes and try to sleep. You’ll feel better if you do.” I did, knowing he was right. I drifted back to sleep, feeling a horrible mixture of weakness, nausea and now guilt.

***

“What’s the plan?” Laney asked me. She had come over that evening to make sure I was ok. I didn’t realize I had ten missed calls from her.

“The plan for what?”

“You know, revenge.”

“Oh.” I looked around the table. Ethan, Harrison, Laney and I were in dining room, eating Chinese take-out. Well, they were. I sipped Ginger Ale and nibbled on Saltine crackers. “I guess I hadn’t come up with one yet.”

“Do you know any curses?” Excitement flashed in Laney’s eyes.

“Actually, yes,” I told her, recalling The Snake Eye Curse I found in the BOS. “It would reverse Mike’s negative karma on him three-fold. His energy would drain, he would feel confused, have extremely bad luck and lose all his confidence. It starts slow, so he wouldn’t know what is going on. Voices and shadows would haunt his every waking minute. Everyone will think he is going crazy, and basically, he is.”

“Remind me to never piss you off,” Harrison said, making us laugh.

“But that’s black magic, and I don’t know if I want open that door just yet.” Ethan looked at me approvingly after I said that. Truth be told, thinking about hexes and curses reminded me of the bird-human-demons from my dream.

“Good idea,” Laney agreed. “What about a Voodoo doll?”

Laney stayed until ten o’clock. Ethan said he’d stay until I fell asleep and Harrison said he’d check on me later that night. As wonderful as it was to have everyone so concerned for me, I felt awkward being weak and defenseless. And as much as I appreciated the company, I wanted everyone to leave. I had something very important to do.

I was in the comfy state hovering about between wake and sleep when Ethan softly kissed me and said goodnight. Hunter followed him downstairs. I almost didn’t get up but I had to. After making sure Ethan had left, I pulled out the BOS (which I had stashed under my pillow). It didn’t take me long to find the page I was looking for. I poured a circle of salt around me and lit four white candles, placing them at the north, east, south and west points of the circle. I grabbed Hunter’s water bowl, a bottle of dried Bay leaves and sat down inside the circle. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths to focus my mind. I put a leaf in the water and watched it float to stillness on the water’s surface.

I stared at the leaf. I imagined it moving in clock-wise circles. Nothing happened at first, but then, very slowly the tip of the leaf twitched. My eyes widened. Without breaking my concentration I ‘pushed’ it again. After a few seconds the leaf was spinning like crazy.

“No way,” I whispered. Mentally, I let go and turned it the other direction. Without touching it, I pushed it under the water. I looked around the room. Hunter was lying on my bed watching me. I felt really, really tired. I picked the leaf out of his bowl and blew out the candles. Before turning off my bedside lamp and going to sleep, I took one more look at the BOS page.

The word “Telekinesis” was written in fancy black script at the top.

***

Ethan said he had a lead to check out about the Pricolici so I drove myself home from school Monday. I played with Romeo for a good while; he hadn’t been out as much as usual since I’ve been so distracted. I met Laney at the barn so we could ride together. It started raining so we were forced to be inside. Ever since she found out about me being a witch, she’d drilled me with all sorts of questions.

“Do you think you can cast a spell on Ramona?” she whispered as we brushed our horses.

“I’m sure I can. What kind of spell?”

“Like a shut-the-hell-up spell. She’s so annoying!”

I laughed and ran the brush through Mystery’s long tail.
Laney opened her mouth to ask another question but never got the chance because Leslie ran in and gave me a hug.

“Girl, I was so worried. I was about to take you to the hospital before your boyfriend showed up. He better have taken good care of you.”

“He stayed with me all night and the entire next day,” I told her, not able to keep the puppy-dog love look out of my eyes. Laney and Leslie both ‘awwwed’ and made me blush.

“You are so in
laa-of,
” Laney said in a sing-song voice.

“Shut up. No I’m not.” I quickly turned back to Mystery. I’ve never focused harder on brushing his mane in my life. I didn’t want to admit how strongly I felt to Ethan to my friends or myself. I didn’t want to be one of those girls that fell head over heels in love with someone right away.

“Oh my God you are!” Leslie exclaimed.
 
“Aw, Annie, that’s so cute!”

“Why are you so embarrassed? You should be happy!” Laney put her face up to the bars that divided Mystery and Abra’s stalls.

“I’m not embarrassed. It’s just-not. It’s not true.”

“Whatever. She so is,” Leslie said to Laney. “Give her time and she’ll admit it.”

“I know,” Laney agreed. “I just don’t get why she won’t admit it now, I mean, at least to us.”

“Guys, I’m right here.” I turned to them. Leslie made a face.

“I’ve got a lesson to give. I’m glad you’re all better. Tell Ethan he gets my stamp of approval.”

***

“Why are you so muddy?”

“Uh, from practice.”

“Oh. And the coach let you wear jeans?”

“No. The guys and I. We, uh, were horsing around after practice.”

I just nodded. Harrison was lying. I could always tell with him. The oven timer went off and I got up to take the chocolate chip cookies out. Harrison tried to take one and I smacked his hand away.

“First, they’re hot so you’ll burn yourself. Second, they’re for Ethan.”

“Can’t I just have one?”

“Fine, but let them cool.”

He impatiently took one off the cookie sheet and popped it into his mouth. His eyes bugged and he quickly spit it out.

“Told you they were hot!”

Ethan came over about a half hour later and devoured most of the cookies within minutes. “You’re a good cook,” he said with his mouthful.

“Glad you like it.” I poured him a glass of milk, stacked the remaining cookies on a plate and ushered him upstairs into my room. “So what did you find out today?” He looked at me like he had no idea what I was talking about. “The lead about the Pricolici?”

“Oh, it was a wash. I didn’t find anything.”

“Shoot. I was hoping to find something out. I’m getting tired of waiting for an attack. Can we go hunt for them?”

Ethan looked at me curiously. “You’d be up for that?”

“Hell yes. I hate not knowing what to expect. Every little noise, every shadow makes me think it’s them. I want this over with.”

Delight shone in Ethan’s eyes. I loved it when he looked at me like that. A nagging feeling jumped into my stomach. “Ethan?” I was suddenly serious. The delight drained from his face.

“Yea?” I settled in the middle of my bed. Ethan joined me. “Is something wrong?”

“No, well, I don’t know.” I felt weird again, like I did when I told Laney and Harry about me being a witch. “I think I’m telekinetic.”

Completely astonished, Ethan stammered, “What do you mean?”

I looked around the room for something light. Nothing was close by so I took my pendent off. I held it in front of us and waited until it was relatively still. “Clockwise or counter clockwise?”

“Uh, clockwise.”

I focused on the metal circle, narrowing my eyes in concentration. It started moving in a slow, small circle. I relaxed my squint as I moved it in wider, faster circles. Then I made it suddenly stop. I dropped the leather cord but the pendent hung in the air. Ethan looked from the necklace to me. The look on his face was awful.

“You think I’m a freak!” I felt like crying. The pendent fell to the ground. I stared at the floor. I didn’t know Ethan picked up the necklace until he slipped it over my head. I still couldn’t make myself look him in the eye.

“Hey,” he said gently. I didn’t look up. “Annie.” Still no reaction from me. He put his hands around my face and tenderly pulled it so I was looking at him. He spoke clearly and slowly. “I don’t think you are a freak.” He wasn’t lying. He kissed me so softly that the tears that threatened to spill ran down my cheeks.

“Well, why not? I am.”

He laughed softly and kissed me again before wiping off the tears.
 
“Annie, I was raised in the Order. After school I had weapons training. I’ve been quizzed over demons since I was ten. Instead of studying for the SAT’s my dad had me memorize crystals and their magical uses. I went to college
against
the Order’s will. They thought staying home and training was more important.
I
am the freak.”

“Ok. You win that one,” I laughed softly. “At least we can be freaks together.”

Ethan kissed me. “Together.”

“Why did you look so scared then?” The words came out of my mouth as if I had no control over my voice. I regretted it as soon as I said it.

Ethan hesitated. “It’s just…” he cast his gaze to the floor. “It’s not something we come across very often. Well, as often as normal for supernatural stuff goes.” He looked at me again. “Powers like that…” he trailed off again. “Only really powerful witches have powers like that.”

“Powers for the powerful,” I said quietly. I didn’t feel powerful though.

Ethan held me tight. “Don’t worry about it; we’ll get through this, ok?”

 
Hunter whined by the door. Reluctantly, we got up to take him out. He leaped down the deck stairs and raced around the yard, happy to be out. He ran back over to us and dropped his tennis ball. Ethan jumped down the stairs to play with him.

“Want your coat?” I asked, shivering. Ethan gave me a half shrug. I grabbed his jacket and decided to wrap a big, double fleece blanket around me instead of putting my coat on. A few stars were visible in the patchy cloud covered sky. The rain had stopped but the deck was wet so I settled into a cast iron chair. Ethan looked so cute playing with Hunter. I thought about what Laney and Leslie said this morning. Ethan and I had been together for a little over a month. Current events have seemed to push us closer together faster than normal, but had it been enough time to say those three words? Darkness crept over me as I pondered that.

 
Before I knew it, I was back in the basement of the Victorian. I was cold. My body hurt. Blood dripped down my face. It was dark, too dark to see anything. A matched sizzled and someone lit a candle. I could see a hooded figure carry it over to an altar. More candles were lit and the bird-demon things stood in a circle chanting. Up close, I could see that their skin was weathered and wrinkly. It was covered in scabbed over sores. They reeked of decay and misery. They moved closer to me. I tried to scramble away but I was chained to the floor. One held my right arm down while another dragged a rusty knife down my palm.