Ungifted (43 page)

Aimee was standing at the reception desk, grinning at me brightly. “Hi, Grace! It’s good to see you again.”

“You too,” I said warily. I’d liked her well enough when I met her on Samhain, but after the Laytons I had a hard time believing she didn’t have an agenda. Her mom was a good friend of Simone’s, after all. She was involved with the resistance, and I didn’t trust anyone involved with the resistance anymore.

“Aimee,” Ethan said smoothly. “What brings you here?” Clearly he was as distrusting as I was.

Aimee held up her hand with a frown. “Nail emergency. I broke one of my tips this morning.”

“Tragic,” I agreed.

One of the salon workers grabbed Aimee’s hand and clicked her tongue while shaking her head. “I fix for you.”

“Oh yes, please!”

“You’re Clara’s friend,” Russ said as Aimee sat down. His voice sounded accusing.

“Oh, right,” I said. “Russ, this is Aimee. Aimee, this is—”

“Russ Devereaux,” Aimee finished for me. She took a slow breath, as if she were trying to concentrate really hard. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Russ looked so angry all of a sudden that I took his hand. “You okay?”

He clung to me and waited until he calmed down. Then he took a deep breath and said, “You’re a part of the resistance?”

Aimee shrugged. “My mom drags me to the meetings, but I’m not really into it. I mean, who cares, you know? I’m more interested in why you call Clara
Clare-bear
. Simone raves about how amazing you are, but I can’t get Clara to say anything one way or another. Did you guys hook up once?”

I thought that was an excellent question. Russ answered it with a murderous look. “Do I look like a witch lover?”

Aimee went rigid, like a cobra about to strike. “I heard your dad likes to slut around with them. I just wondered if it runs in the family.”

Russ jumped out of his chair but before he could cast whatever spell he was about to attempt, Ethan tackled him to the ground.

Aimee looked as if she was ready to cast an attack of her own, so I jumped up from my own seat and clamped my hand in hers before she could kill Russ. She tried to cast the spell, but of course she had no magic as long as I was touching her. She gasped and blinked down at our hands. “What did you do to me?”

“Outside!” Ethan snapped before I could answer her. He picked Russ up off the ground and dragged him out the front door.

I looked at all the startled salon ladies and pulled all the cash from my wallet. “Sorry about the mess,” I said, scrambling for Russ’s and my shoes.

Once we were outside, Aimee stopped me again. “What did you do to me?”

“You can’t use your magic as long as I’m touching you. I have no idea why. It happens to Russ, too. Now will somebody please explain to me what in the world is going on? Why are you guys trying to kill each other?”

Both Russ and Aimee scoffed, refusing to answer me.

Ethan snorted. “It’s called a blood feud. Witches and warlocks generally don’t get along. They aren’t usually this uncontrolled—the temper tantrums are usually saved for vampires and werewolves—but Russ hasn’t had a lot of experience being around witches.” He elbowed Russ playfully. “Have you, buddy?” Russ pouted expertly in response, forcing another laugh from Ethan. “You should know better than to antagonize a witch.”

“Hey, she started it! Accusing me of hooking up with—”

Russ stopped in mid-sentence and whirled around in a circle as if he was looking for something.

“Russ?” I asked.

“Shh!” he said. He closed his eyes in concentration.

Ethan automatically moved closer to me. “Russ?” he asked. The strain in his voice could choke a horse.

“Can you feel it?”

“Feel what?” Aimee, Ethan, and I all asked together.

“Magic. It’s that same immortal witch magic. She’s close by. Using a cloaking spell.”

“No way,” Aimee sneered.

Ethan didn’t question Russ’s hunch. “Where?” he asked, and started dragging me toward his car.

“Hang on,” Russ whispered.

“You can’t possibly feel that,” Aimee said. “I don’t care if you
are
a Devereaux. No one could feel a cloaking spell, much less one cast with immortal magic.”

“I can.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Grab on to your witch bitch, Grace.”

“Excuse me?” Aimee huffed.

“Do it now, Grace!”

I took Aimee’s hand and then Russ began to chant something in Latin. Immediately, this huge wave of energy exploded from him like an invisible shock wave. None of the humans on the street seemed to notice, but we heard a girl cry out in pain down the street behind us.

Russ whipped around and pointed in the direction of the noise. “Ethan! There!”

Ethan took off in the direction Russ had pointed, but then an invisible force sent Russ flying backward through the storefront window of the boutique clear across the street from where we were standing.

“Russ!” I shrieked. “Ethan! Help him!”

“Get in the car, Grace!” Ethan shouted at me as he jumped through the broken window.

Aimee and I scrambled into the backseat of Ethan’s Lexus. Seconds later, Ethan helped Russ into the passenger seat and then drove us out of there as fast as he could without killing anyone.

“Russ?”

“I’m okay,” Russ insisted with a grunt. He uttered a few very colorful curse words and then said, “She’s a downright nasty witch, whoever she is. I’ve never been hit so hard in my life. If I hadn’t been shielding myself, that knock-back spell would have killed me.”

Russ groaned again, rubbing his chest and laughing. “Though I doubt she’s feeling good right now, either. I’m surprised she could throw a spell that hard after the hit I gave her.”

“What did you do back there?” Aimee asked. “I thought you were supposed to be untrained.”

Russ glared at Aimee. “Maybe, but what I do know I totally kick ass at. Before I went to break Dani out of the consulate, my dad taught me a couple of offensive spells he thought might come in handy. That one basically sends out a wave of power that will hit any magic user within a certain radius—cloaked, shielded, or otherwise.”

“That’s not possible,” Aimee argued.

“You saw it yourself.”

“How did you know it wouldn’t hurt Aimee if I was holding on to her?” I asked.

Russ smirked in Amiee’s direction and shrugged. “Didn’t for sure. Lucky guess. But I couldn’t see whoever was there, so I didn’t have any other choice.”

“How did you know she was there?” Aimee asked. “Seriously, that shouldn’t have been possible.”

Russ shrugged. “I was right, though.”

“But who was it? Why was she attacking you?”

“She’s after Grace,” Ethan said. “There have been a few attempts on Grace’s life. We know it’s a witch, and we believe it’s someone who might be using immortal magic. As head of the D.C. witch council, do you think your mom might be able to tell us who has access to immortal blood?”

“There’ve been more attacks?” Aimee asked, confused. “I knew about what happened at your school, but I didn’t know it had happened again.”

Ethan nodded. “Just once so far unless you count just now, but that second attack was nearly successful. I’m not sure I can keep Grace safe if I don’t figure out who’s doing this.”

Aimee bit her lip. I was surprised by the genuine worry she displayed on my behalf. I barely knew the girl, but she looked truly scared for my life. “There’s a resistance meeting tonight at the D.C. consulate library. Both my mom and Simone will be there. Between the two of them, they know pretty much every witch in the area. I’ll bring it up and see if they have any ideas.”

“Thank you,” Ethan said. “Any information would be helpful.”

Ethan drove Aimee back to the salon where her car was parked, and the minute she was gone Russ looked at Ethan with a very devious smile. “So are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Time to crash a resistance meeting?”

Russ laughed. “I knew I liked you for a reason.”

Ethan glanced in the rearview mirror at me. “What about Grace?” he asked Russ.

I didn’t appreciate not being given an opinion. “You’ll bring me with you, of course.”

“No way.”

“Yes way,” I insisted. “The resistance isn’t going to hurt me. They want me on their side, remember? You guys are a lot more likely to get some straight answers if I’m there.”

Ethan sighed. “Fine. You can come.”

“What’s the game plan?” Russ asked. “Do you trust them at all? Will she be safe? Will I?”

Ethan was quiet for a moment and then nodded. “I’m sure you’ll be safe, but I don’t trust them entirely. It could get complicated if they figure out Grace’s connection to Dani.” He looked at me with a frown. “They’re going to try to persuade you to work with them. The connection to your father is too tempting.”

“I don’t doubt they will,” I said. “That’s part of the reason I want to go. They won’t stop trying to get to me until they understand that I won’t help them.” I tried not to take offense at Ethan’s skeptical face. “I’m not a pushover like you think. There’s a difference between being afraid to stand up for yourself and choosing not to. I don’t say anything to the kids at school because they’re not worth it. It’s better for me to stay out of the spotlight. I don’t have a lot of friends because I refuse to let people use me, which, believe me, they always try to. You don’t know what it’s like to be somebody important. You’ll learn, though, if anyone ever finds out who your father is. You’ll see it’s not so black and white.”

Ethan didn’t know what to say to that. He had that guilty look on his face again, as if he understood now that he’d misjudged me, but there was still a trace of doubt, too.

“You don’t have to worry, Ethan. I’m probably a less trusting person than Russ, and considering what the Laytons did, I’m not exactly happy with the resistance. They won’t get what they want. We might, though, if we go, and it’s smart to know exactly what it is they hope to gain from me. I can protect myself better if I know what I’m up against. Even you can’t argue with that.”

Ethan finally cracked. “Fine,” he said. “But will you at least try to trust me if I think you’re in danger? And will you keep things, like the fact that you’re the Ungifted One, to yourself? Knowing your enemy is one thing, but them knowing the truth about you is dangerous.”

“I can do that as long as you stop trying to make my choices for me. I’ll let you keep me safe, Ethan, but I won’t let you control my life. You need to learn the difference.”

Ethan didn’t look happy, but he gritted his teeth and nodded. “Fair enough. But if you try to make stupid choices, I’m going to let you know it.”

I surprised us both when I smiled. “Fair enough.”

. . . . .

Russ spent the rest of the afternoon asking Ethan question after question about the resistance. Then the two of them sat around discussing “strategy” for this evening’s big meeting as if they were some sort of special ops team preparing to infiltrate rebel caves in Afghanistan.

That evening, Ethan drove us to a beautiful upscale neighborhood in one of D.C.’s historical districts. The Washington, D.C., branch of the consulate library was based out of a privately owned Victorian-style house. It was beautiful with its turrets, widow’s walk, and dormer windows.

“It’s amazing,” I said as we walked up to the front door.

“Okay, Grace, stay right beside me. The library is open to the public, but I have no idea how they’re going to react to us bringing a human inside.”

Russ laughed at my nerves. “Libraries give me the heebie-jeebies, too,” he teased, and then offered me his hand. I accepted it eagerly.

We stopped about two steps inside the door. An older gentleman in a tweed blazer sat behind a desk, scribbling something with a quill pen. “Hello, young ones!” he greeted without looking up. “Welcome to the consulate library. How may I be of assistance?” He finally set his paper aside and looked up. The smile was startled right off his face when he saw us. “Lands, but you’re…you’re…”

“Human?” I offered, and the man flinched again. “I’m sorry I’ve startled you. Yes, I’m human. I’ve recently discovered your world, and it’s been very overwhelming. My friends believe it might help me to learn as much as I can. Is it all right if we look around? Am I allowed to be here?”

The librarian stood there, blinking at me. He opened his mouth but no words came out.

“She is not a danger to us,” Ethan said quietly. “She has accepted the truth.”

“As I see,” the librarian breathed. Finally, he was able to smile. “You must forgive my shock,” he said. “Of course you are welcome here. It is an honor to meet such an open-minded human. Anything I can do to help you, just ask.”

“We’ll just look around for a while,” Ethan said, pulling me close to his side.

We turned to walk away from the desk, but the librarian stopped us again. “Pardon me, but I must introduce myself.” This time he was looking at Russ, not me. “I am Marcus Courtney, High Warlock of Washington, D.C. It is an honor to meet you, young Master Devereaux.” Ethan and Russ both stiffened, but the librarian was still smiling. “I’d recognize you anywhere. You bear such a striking resemblance to your father.”