Todd and Lilah soon joined the group as well. It wouldn’t have surprised her at this point if the southern tribe leader walked through the door. ‘That actually wouldn’t be too bad,’ she thought. She was overly curious to meet him, but he was the one representative who didn’t make an appearance.
“Alright, girls,” Grandma Eloise said, directing her attention to the four newly called witches. “We are in need of a coven. You will partake in this as well. Now, gather what we need to cast a circle.”
The girls excitedly ran from the room gathering everything that was needed. There was much rambling coming from them as they marveled in the idea of doing real spell work for a change and to be a part of a coven with their grandma. It didn’t matter what spell was being cast. They did not concern themselves with any more details. They were finally being included as equals.
“How many of us are there?” Grandma counted off the witches. “Four,” she said, looking toward the directions the girls had just went. Then she counted Everleigh, Rita and Meredith in that order. “Five, six, seven, and I make eight. That won’t do. We need at least nine.”
Amber and Grace walked into the room with their arms full of candle boxes and holders. Meredith and Rita helped them unload then sent them back for more supplies. Kiara was making one trip after another bringing chalices and herbs. She didn’t even know what would be needed, so she grabbed everything she could find. No one instructed her different. Jasmin came in bearing salt and chalk not sure which they’d use for the circle.
Meredith smiled at her and took what she brought. These girls were doing their best to be helpful, but in their hurry they were creating a lot more work for the rest.
Everleigh scanned through everyone she knew in her mind trying to see who was the closest to them as time certainly appeared to be of the essence. “There’s Aunt May,” she told her grandma. It would take about an hour for her to get here allowing her time to get ready to leave. That shouldn’t delay them too long.
“Not necessary,” her grandma told her.
There’s no one closer to us than Aunt May she thought as she searched her mind a second time trying to figure out who she missed.
“Matt,” Eloise called.
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“You will be the ninth member, and Todd?”
“Yes, Eloise,” Todd answered immediately as if he’d been waiting for his instructions. He moved with superhuman speed to her side.
“You and Lilah will amplify the effects of the spell. You know what to do?”
“Yes, Eloise,” Todd told her. He had done this very thing many times in the past with Meredith.
“Me?” Matt questioned, looking at everybody in the room with surprise. “I can’t be the ninth.”
“And why not?” Eloise asked tartly. “Do you have better plans for your time?”
“No,” his eyes darted away. Eloise could intimidate the strongest of men. “I’m a wolf. I’m not an Earth.”
“I know that, dear,” Eloise said, sounding irritated and looking at him like he had just called her an idiot. “I also am well aware of who was your great-grandmother. Am I wrong to believe that Earth blood resides in your veins just the same as Water’s blood runs through them?” she asked.
Matt nodded at her. “That’s enough?”
Eloise put her arm around him. Everleigh was setting up the candles around the floor while Meredith and Rita drew the star, but she paused to watch. She knew her grandma was about to explain to Matt than anyone could fill the position, magical or not. It just wouldn’t do with only eight people. Having a trace of Earth blood was better than none at all, but in a pinch, a non-descendant would’ve worked. Everyone in the house was distracted from their tasks before her grandma could say a word.
A loud sudden noise from the hallway caused everyone to jump. Everleigh turned to see Lilah collapsed on the floor on her side, clutching her chest and struggling to breathe. Todd went to her and held her head still between his hands on his lap.
“Look at me, Lilah!” he yelled at her. “That’s it. Directly in my eyes. You are at the home of Eloise Campbell, remember? We have gathered here to aid the witches. Focus!”
Everleigh walked to the doorway with her mouth gaped open. The beating of her heart was so loud and fast beneath her sweater she was sure everyone could hear it. They had all worn blinders while working on the setup. She hadn’t seen anything happen to Lilah. She didn’t know what it is that had affected her like this or who.
“Breathe, Lilah,” Todd instructed her again, as she continued to fight for air.
Lilah was slowly improving. Whatever had happened to leave her like this had to be strong, but it was clear that she would soon be alright.
Todd continued to hold her face and didn’t break his eye contact with her, but he spoke to someone else. Perhaps it was directed solely to Eloise. Perhaps it was for the group. Everleigh wasn’t sure who he was talking to, but everyone could hear him. “I assumed she was helping with something like the rest of us. I didn’t pay any attention to her.”
She stared right at him listening to his instructions. Utter terror shown in her eyes. Everleigh had no idea what was going on, but the effect it had on her friend made her extremely nervous. She had never seen that level of fright on anyone’s face.
“What happened?” Matt muttered, more to himself than a question he expected anyone to answer.
“She was in a trance,” Todd answered, without breaking eye contact with his niece. “It can be dangerous when you’re new to them, and I didn’t realized it was happening.”
“Why...How?” Rita stepped forward curious.
Todd looked baffled. “It’s not something that just happens normally. We prepare for this. That’s why I didn’t think to watch her,” he explained, growing more upset.
“She’s going to be fine, Todd,” Meredith put her hand on his shoulder and gave him a gentle squeeze. “Look at her. You can see it.”
“Amber, go get Lilah a glass of juice.” Eloise was quickly taking control of the situation.
“Juice?” Amber asked.
“Anything sugary,” Eloise further explained.
“Everleigh?”
“Yes, Grandma.”
“Fetch a blanket. Her body temperature will have dropped.”
Everleigh sprinted from the room wanting to return as quickly as possible.
Eloise looked around. “Boys, where did you move the couch?” She’d no sooner said the words before she spied it. It was on top of other furniture piled in the hallway that ran along the stairs. “Set it back down. She will need to rest.”
Matt and Luke easily moved the couch to the doorway of the front room blocking the path to the door. It jutted into the room, but wouldn’t interfere with the space they needed to work.
Todd told Lilah, “I’m going to carry you to the couch now. You ready?”
Everleigh and Amber returned at the same time with the items Grandma Eloise had requested. She held a hand up informing them to wait.
Todd started to lift Lilah, and she panicked. Her arms flailed against him, so he stopped moving her.
Everleigh had been studying her face every moment she was near her since her friend collapsed unable to look away from the terror Lilah appeared to be going through. When Todd attempted to move her, she saw the change. The recognition came back to Lilah’s eyes. It was then that she returned to this house and her surroundings. Everleigh wondered if anyone else realized Lilah hadn’t been in her body the entire time she was being tended to.
“They have Fire!” The words burst from her mouth so fast no one could be sure they heard her right.
Luke bent over and took a step backward like the words punched him in the gut. Meredith put her arms around him to steady him.
“What did you say?” Her uncle’s face was frozen in alarm.
“Fire! They have him,” Lilah repeated, tears breaking free from the corners of her eyes.
“Who has him, dear?” El
oise asked.
Lilah looked like she was searching for the answer, but it couldn’t be found. “I don’t know,” she finally said.
“Let’s make her comfortable,” Eloise told Todd.
“Okay, Lilah. I’m going to move you now.” He picked her up and set her on the couch that had been placed behind her.
Eloise nodded at the girls, and they rushed to her. Everleigh draped the blanket over Lilah and fought the urge to sit next to her assuming that her uncle would probably want to stay by her side. She was right. As soon as she stepped away, Todd sat on the edge of the cushion, his body angled toward her.
Amber brought over a glass of yellowish liquid. “It’s pineapple. All we had,” she told Lilah. “My grandma said you need to drink it.”
Lilah took the glass and sipped.
“What happened, Lilah? Why did you go into a trance without assistance?”
“I didn’t. I mean… It just happened,” she said quietly.
Todd shot Meredith a look that implied this isn’t right. “What do you remember? Anything?’
Lilah shook her head and took another sip. “There was a white room.”
Everyone hung on her every word filled with curiosity and hoping to learn what had happened to Fire.
Eloise walked to the side and leaned against the arm of the couch. She leaned down toward Lilah and softly spoke, “You said you saw Fire. What did you mean?”
Lilah’s eyes looked at the floor, but they darted quickly around like she was watching something no one else could see. “They have him,” she said, becoming agitated again.
“He’s being held against his will,” she started.
“By who?” Todd asked.
“I don’t know. There were two women,” Lilah told him. Her eyes were still displaying the rapid fire movement as she spoke. “But they talked about someone else.”
“Were they wolves?” Eloise inquired.
“No,” Lilah swallowed. “I mean I don’t know. There was a witch.”
“Witches?” Meredith cried out in disbelief.
“One of them, yes. There was a spell.”
“She’s not making any sense,” Rita murmured, trying to quietly tell Matt. Everyone heard it.
“There can be some confusion when you emerge from a trance.” Eloise explained without taking her eyes off of Lilah. “Your mind is muddled like waking from a dream. Sometimes only fragments remain. Sometimes you remember every detail vividly. Give her time.”
“Where is he?” Luke’s voice was wrought with agony.
Lilah didn’t answer. She stared at the floor clutching her empty glass tightly with her eyes flitting as if they were out of control. It was almost as if she hadn’t heard him.
She handed her glass off to her uncle and rubbed her palms over her legs before finally looking around at the group that had collected to learn more. She glanced at the faces until she found Luke then looked back at the floor. “Is there...” she didn’t finish her thought.
“What, Lilah? Is there what?” Todd encouraged her.
“It was a white room,” she repeated.
Todd looked at Eloise frustrated. A white room wouldn’t help them find him.
“Lilah, honey. I want you to remember the white room. What was in it with him? Anything you can remember will help us,” Eloise coaxed.
The movement in Lilah’s eyes increased again, and as if for the first time, Todd took notice. He leaned his face forward until it was inches from hers staring into her eyes watching the movements. “Lilah, close your eyes.”
She closed her eyes, but the movement was still there behind her lids. “It looks like a meat locker. Some kind of butcher shop.”
“How far away?” he asked.
“It’s here.”
A collective gasp filled the room.
“Here? In Fairview?”
“Yes,” she answered, pointing across the front room in the direction she had traveled astrally.
“Is there a place like that in town?” Todd scanned the group waiting for anyone to answer.
“Yes,” Eloise answered him. “On the back side of town no more than a mile from here there’s a meat locker.”
“Lilah, try to remember did you see anyone else there with him?” Todd asked.
“Yes, there were two women,” she replied.
“Women? What were they doing?”
“They were examining him. Draining his blood.”
Todd glanced at Luke before continuing to see how he was handling the news. “Okay. Do you remember anything else? Anything they might’ve said or did? Anything that may help us?”
“They’re coming back.”
“What do you mean back? Where did they go?”
“I don’t know. They left the room, but before they did, they talked about coming back. Things they needed or needed to do. I don’t remember.”
“That’s good. You’re doing great, Lilah.”
“One of them is a witch,” Lilah blurted out again, forgetting she had already mentioned it.
Everleigh felt lost watching her friend and not knowing how to help. Whatever had happened left her out of sorts. It wasn’t long ago she had encouraged her to intentionally enter a different type of trance to see the future. The warnings were well known, but Everleigh had been confident Air was being too soft and coddling Lilah. When she caught Lilah looking at her, she had to look away. The guilt she was feeling for what she could have put Lilah through was forming in her gut. Todd hadn’t been exaggerating about the effects it had on them. This trance couldn’t have lasted more than a few minutes, and the recovery was already taking several times longer.
“How do you know its Fire? Did they say something that alluded to that?” Uncle Todd asked.
Lilah shook her head.
“What did he look like? Can you describe him for me?”
“Uh, dark hair. Really dark. Blue eyes.”
“You were that close to him?” Luke inched closer.
Lilah’s breathing quickened remembering the fright she had when the man’s eyes flew open. “Only briefly.”
“Take it slow and drink,” Eloise instructed.
She continued to sip her drink until the glass was empty while she filled everyone in on what she remembered about him. “He looked fit. I’m sorry I don’t remember more.”
Luke clasped his hands over the top of his head. It wasn’t enough. It could be anyone. “How tall was he would you say?”
Lilah closed her eyes and opened them several times. “He was sitting down.”
“Any marks or anything that stand out?” Meredith asked.
There wasn’t anything that she remembered seeing, but vampires wouldn’t have any. Wounds heal leaving no trace behind. Not even tattoos last long on their skin. Lilah slyly smiled without realizing it.
“What?” Luke asked.
She looked at him not sure what he meant.
“That smile. What were you thinking just now?”
Her cheeks flushed a deep red as everyone’s eyes bore on her waiting to hear her every word. “Nothing. Just…I was thinking he was quite handsome.”
The young witches started murmuring wondering if they would ever get to see him in person.
“Anything else?” Uncle Todd wanted to know.
She looked at him then shifted her eyes away. “One thing, but I know it’s impossible.”
“Go on,” he gently instructed.
“I … Somehow I felt like…” Lilah looked at everyone fixated on her, wishing they’d leave. “It was like he knew I was there.”
“Has to be Fire then,” Uncle Todd told the group, looking at Luke.
Luke nodded and exhaled the relief of knowing Fire had been located while the panic of how he came to be in his current predicament started to build. “He’s the only one of us who might, and I repeat might, be able to detect the presence of another Elemental.”
“In an astral state?” Grace asked bewildered, and promptly slapped her hand over her mou
th.
“Even in an astral state,” Todd nodded. “The Elements have far more power than any of us.”
Eloise tilted her head to the side, “How are you certain one of the two women is a witch?”
“There was a spell on the door when they unlocked it.”
“A spell? Did you hear it?”
Lilah nodded. “I heard her say something. It was in a different language. I didn’t recognize any of it.”
Meredith straightened up and crossed her arms. “Some spells can only be undone by the witch who cast them. If she’s using it to keep him in the room, and to keep others out, it’s likely she has to be the one to perform it.”
“That won’t be a problem,” Todd stated. “Luke,” he said, already developing a plan.
Luke walked over to him. His fists were clenched, and the veins were bulging in his neck. Centuries of practicing and strengthening his self-control was the only thing preventing him from snapping.
“I need you to get Jackson over here now,” Todd instructed. “Eloise, call Irving. I’m sure he’ll want to know about this.”
They were on their phones in seconds doing as Todd ordered.
Todd reached into his pocket and took out his phone.
“What are you planning?” Meredith asked him.
“I know how I can get in there. I just have to make a call.”
“I want to be a part of this.” Meredith told him in a way that conveyed she wouldn’t be told to stay behind.
“And don’t think I’m not coming,” Luke hissed.
“Actually for what we’re going to do, I will probably need all of you,” he reassured them.
Eloise looked at Everleigh and said, “Dear, I need you to stay with your cousins and Lilah. Keep an eye on everything.”
Todd was already on the phone talking to someone saying there was no time to explain, but be ready to be picked up in ten minutes. When he ended the call, he turned to Everleigh and said, “Please take care of her. She will be extremely weakened and will need to rest a while longer. When she is better, take her to the farmhouse and wait for us to return.”
Todd looked away and called out, “Luke?”
Luke appeared again, and Todd pulled him into the living room out of ear shot from the group gathered around Lilah, and asked quietly, “Do you know what we need from Jackson?”
Earth: The Elementals Book Two Page 25