by Sara Stone
"I appreciate that. I apologize for coming off so crass. It has been a strange night."
"I would say so," he agreed.
"It wasn't just the attack...." I started, but Judson cut me off, probably thinking I was going to blurt out too much again.
"Mr. Goroff, Lia received a strange phone call shortly after our attack. The caller taunted her with information only the sender of the vampires would know." Judson was still speaking to him formally, as he had only told me to call him Aldon.
At this he sat up, staring at Judson and then Ulric. His eyes swirled colors before turning a sparkling onyx like obsidian in the sun. Both men went slack in their chairs. I sat there watching, perplexed at what was going on.
"Is that true?" Aldon asked. They both nodded their heads.
He turned to me, and I felt a strange pulling sensation. I scrunched up my face as I tried to figure it out. I felt my body want to give in to whatever was going on. My heart started to hammer in my chest as the rest of me began to relax, as if I had just been given a muscle relaxer. There was a dark heaviness to it.
"What are you doing?" I asked, flexing out my hands, trying to calm my nerves.
His eyebrows crinkled as he leaned in closer to me.
"Did someone actually call you?" he was opening his eyes wider as he asked.
"Uh, yeah. They called from a blocked number using a voice scrambler, so I couldn't tell who it was."
With that, his eyes went right back to their original color. He seemed put off about something. The guys still sat there in a strange comatose way, only blinking.
"What did you do?" I asked, snapping my fingers in front of Ulric, who sat closest to me.
"Curiously, you are unaffected," he said, with a shrug of his shoulders, "I glamored them."
"Why would you do that?"
"You came to my home with an elaborate story, which included the news of the death of some of my children, then add to it a strange phone call, all while witches are amid a mess of their own. I wanted to be sure of the truth. You, my dear, are immune to my glamor, which hasn't failed me in, well, ever."
"Do you mind undoing that?" I asked, waving a hand at the guys.
"Only if you let me ask you one personal question, if I may. Let's call it collateral for the death of my sires." He smiled, not a full one that would soften his face, but one that held a hint of confidence.
"I guess, as long as you promise not to do that to anyone who is with me again," I said, irritated that he tried to spell us into telling him the truth, which we were freely giving him anyway.
"Deal," he said, smiling again, showing off his brilliantly white teeth.
“Are you and this one here an item?” he asked, nodding in Judson’s direction. Why was this his question?
“No, we are…uh…just friends, I guess,” I said, shrugging. Judson had put his arm around me possessively.
“Delightful,” he said, smiling yet again.
He waved his hand and the guys instantly sat up as if nothing had happened. They blinked a couple of times, clearing the fog.
Aldon stood and shook each of our hands. He gracefully bowed out, explaining the sun would be up soon. He must have noticed my lingering looks at the bookcases because he invited me to come back anytime to do some reading. I didn't know if the old books were worth it, but part of me wanted to find out.
When Alfred escorted us out, we found Judson's truck waiting for us in the driveway. Man, I was slightly jealous of the personal butler and valet Aldon sported. He claimed to be around for hundreds of years, which wasn't something to scoff at. It was hard for me to digest, but then again, how else would he be able to afford all this luxury in the middle of nowhere?
Chapter Nine
When we got to my car, Ulric offered to drive it, saying that I looked dead on my feet. I was surprised but happy he offered. I did indeed feel like death. It did leave me with the choice of staying in the truck with Judson or riding with Ulric. I offered to ride with Ulric, but he declined, using the excuse of needing space.
As we started to make our way home, I understood what he meant. Tension filled the cab of the truck silently as Judson sat fuming in his seat. Whatever was bothering him, he chose not to speak, so I closed my eyes. I was so tired that the events of the day kept my mind running in circles, getting nowhere fast. The tension was giving me anxiety, and I had a hard time trying to tune it out.
Anxiety was coming in waves as my heart raced, and my breaths got shorter. I really wanted to sleep, but I needed to talk to him before I went into full-on panic mode.
"Are you okay?" I asked hesitantly.
"Hm." Wow, so we were back into caveman mode.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I was hoping that he would say no, but his tension was building, smothering me to the point where something needed to be said.
"No." I didn't know how to tell him that his mood was somehow affecting me without coming across all witchy with a capital B.
"So that Aldon guy is weird, huh?"
"You went completely off the plan and gave him way more information than you needed to," he said, crossly.
"I'm sorry. I don't know why I did that." I really was. I didn't want to add insult to injury, but they only sat there until I started talking. Plus, he had been focused on me, was I supposed to clam up? I didn't want his attention or seek it out purposely.
"You ate up his attention, even after I tried getting it off of you." All his pointed sentences got annoying. We hadn't gained a lot of information, but I was sure that Aldon was not the caller. He spoke with an air of elegance that the caller didn't have.
"You mean putting your arm around me like I was a possession. That went over really well."
"I did not act like you were a possession. As soon as Aldon came into the room, he was centered on you. That's not the kind of man you want attention from, or maybe it is. Who knows?" Judson huffed in exasperation.
"I don't see why you are upset. That could have gone badly, but it didn't."
"Says the one that didn't get glamored. He could have made us do just about anything he wanted. He could have asked us to sit there and watch ourselves be killed." He was raising his voice, putting me on edge even more. I clenched my own fists as I fought not to yell back.
"It didn't work on me, though. I wouldn't have let that happen. I had no idea what he was doing until it was over."
"You can barely work a spell. What would you have done? We were in a house full of vampires who could snap your neck with a flick of their wrist!" He did have a point, but now I was worked up that he was raising his voice and treating me like a child. I knew I had a way to go before I could work a spell without it backfiring, but this was yet another blow to my ego. I was upset and stuck sitting in his truck. I just wanted to go to bed.
"More than you can, clearly." I couldn't stop myself from being childish, but between his mood seeping out at me, and his words hurting my feelings, there was no holding it in.
"You are a stubborn witch," he said, snapping it out. Being stubborn was just part of me. I had always been that way, even though it wasn't the best trait to have, and him pointing it out like that did him no favors.
"And you are a stubborn man who is supposedly in charge of protecting me, and yet it's not clear what you can actually do. Why would you be so much better at any of this, as you are without magic?" I had been sitting back in the seat with my arms crossed, and the more he worked me up, the more I started to throw my hands around.
"You know I can't actually explain that to you. Not yet, and I have my own type of magic," he sighed, rubbing his hand down his face exhaustedly.
"No, of course, you can't. There's nothing to explain. I was fine the whole time, and you are just upset that someone saw me as the one in charge. Aldon ignored your macho man ego, and that's why you are all bent out of shape. If you had your own magic, then why wouldn't you use it? Oh right...because you can't show anyone."
"Ugh, you are so aggravating," he s
aid, slamming his fist on the dash. He looked ridiculous, acting out like a child. I wasn't going to tell him as much and add fuel to his fire. I had only known him for a little while, and yet I acted as if I had known him my whole life. I was putting my safety into the hands of a man who I didn't even know if I could fully trust.
I sat there quietly, wanting to rage at him but holding my tongue. No use in stooping to his level. I couldn't help myself from using the silent treatment on him the rest of the way to my house. I was behaving just as badly as he was. I wasn't going to ask him to stay because I didn't want his so-called protection. Even if he offered, I would say no.
He pulled up to the driveway, and before he could even put it in park, I hopped out and slammed the door. Ulric parked in my regular spot and got out. I looked at him for a minute before he handed me the keys. He knew something happened but was smart enough not to say anything about it. His genuine concern, which I could feel passing through me, softened my resolve a tiny bit.
I stomped up the stairs, flipping off my shoes, shedding clothing as I went. I needed a hot shower to process all that had happened. I turned on the tap until steam filled up the bathroom. I hoped that the hot water would knead my muscles until all the stress and fatigue wore off.
Standing there for a long time, soaking in the heat, I tried to get myself to calm down. It took the edge off, but different scenarios still ran rampant through my head. Maybe Judson had been right. I did give Aldon a lot of what happened without being sure as to his side. I could see why he was mad, but then my ego was there telling me he hadn't helped anyway.
I dressed quickly in the bathroom, away from my busted window. I wasn't going to stand there in the nude and have some attackers pull a peeping tom first. After thoroughly running a brush through my long hair, I grabbed my blanket and pillow from my room, locking it on the way out. I wanted to slow anyone down who decided the second story was the way in. Not that the old lock would do much, but it was how my mind was working so early in the morning after no sleep.
Lying down on the couch, I was stuck staring at the ceiling, irritated beyond belief, with the way Judson dropped me off and just overall mad from lacking so much sleep, yet not being able to pass out. I tried counting sheep after a few tosses, trying to get rid of the feeling that the cushions were misaligned. I tried spelling myself into a relaxing sleep. That didn't work either. I had no idea what I was doing outside of the spell book.
I shuffled to the kitchen for coffee since my body and mind weren't ready to let me sleep. I carried my laptop to the kitchen table to browse a few emails and focus on something ordinary. My work grounded me in all this crazy supernatural stuff that I wasn't sure of. I needed the job to keep Gram's house. She had used her money to buy the home outright, but the taxes and maintenance on these old things weren't cheap.
The first couple of emails were from my department's head asking for a few more detailed reviews on two manuscripts I had already voted we take on. I usually didn't get questioned or asked to show follow up work. Maybe they thought it needed to happen now that I worked remotely.
After reviewing and rewriting a summary of a romance novel, I made sure to include specifics so Stacey couldn't act like I wasn't really paying attention to why we should take this one on. I then emailed all that to Tom, who I worked closely with, he would double-check that I hadn't missed anything before putting his own two cents in. We agreed on just about every book that we had looked through since our start together at the bottom. I knew that he would just fix it if he caught onto anything, unless he was on the bandwagon aiming get me working harder from home.
By the time I had done all that, I was six cups into the pot of coffee I had made and fighting off the jitters, noticing my foot was bouncier than usual. My mind was just as tired as it fought to keep up. A crash was inevitable, and I counted on it to help me get some sleep, even if it was just a long nap.
I opened another email from Henry, my boss, and sat there staring at it. I wanted to stay in Gram's house just as much as I wanted to keep my job. Apparently, they had other plans.
Dahlia,
We regret to inform you that your vacation and sick leave have ended. The remote position as reviewer and editor will be ending as well unless you can increase your workload. If you are interested, I have attached the agreement, including your remote job duties. It is not just your job that is being changed. The office has had to let people go and consolidate positions for the workflow to meet our customer needs.
Sincerely
Management
How lovely. I fought the tears as I tried to figure out if I could handle more than usual. It didn't really matter. I would do what I needed to. Then I read through my new job description and was shocked beyond belief. There was no way there were this many manuscripts coming in for all of us to do. Each manuscript consisted of about ten thousand to eighty thousand words. I would be working for at least ten plus hours a day, if not more. I was a fast reader, but nothing could touch reading that much a day on top of reviewing each one accurately.
I picked up my cell and called Tom to see if they changed his intake of manuscripts too. I sat on hold while waiting to be transferred to his extension. While I sat there, I went back to emails I sent to him to see that they had been sent back. Strange. That had never happened. I finally got through to his number, and his voicemail had been deleted. I hung up more confused than when I first read the email.
I then called Henry. He was the guy above me. He picked up on the second ring.
"Hello, Dahlia." He always called me by my full name, even after telling him every day to just call me Lia.
"Hi, Henry. Do you know where I can reach Tom? I tried emailing him and the emails got sent back."
"He no longer works here." He said it so plainly I was sure he meant in the department.
"Oh, did he move positions?"
"No, he no longer works for the company." I sat there, feeling all kinds of emotions as I read between the lines. He wasn't saying outright that he was fired, but that's what I was getting. Tom had started a few months before me. He had shown me the ropes, made sure I never fell behind on anything, and was just overall a good work friend. It was hard knowing he was ultimately inconsequential to them after all the work he had put in.
"What? Is that why my workload increased?" I was trying hard not to push the issue. It irritated me that taking away people's livelihoods seemed so inconsequential.
"No, we feel our numbers could be higher, so we doubled up on everyone who lasted the cut. I hope that won't be an issue for you."
"No, sir. I will have the ones in my log sent in by tonight. Who do I send them to now?"
"Send them over to Stacey." Then the line was dead. Stacey was his assistant who did the heavy lifting for Henry while he got all the credit. I guess that's how work politics went. I had no idea how she put up with his pompous derriere daily.
I needed to move to the couch. Being in the kitchen, my mind told me to eat my weight in snacks to stay awake and fight the coffee gurgling sourly around in my stomach. My eyes were dry, making it even harder to read as the words blurred on the screen. I rubbed them furiously. Instead of being productive, I sat there fighting to get through it. Sometimes it was fantastic reading great works of new authors, and other times it was dreadful. This was one of those times, where all the manuscripts were piling up. I couldn't think of anything but the attack, Aldon, Judson's attitude, and everything that had transpired since I came back to town. It all swirled around my head like buzzing angry bees, each one wanting the attention.
Then it hit me that we had done the location spell but had done nothing to stop the voice, whoever it was, from being able to spy on me in my house. The thought of being spied on possibly while I undressed made me gag. I went upstairs and curled into the wingback chair with the spell book. There had to be something to help with this issue. Searching through the chapters, I came across a spell for protection. It seemed easy enough to do. Well, I had me
ssed up royally before, so it was up in the air.
The spell called for wearing a stone for protection. I had never made jewelry before as I wasn't particularly crafty. I searched through the rocks Gram kept on the shelf. She had a wide range of them. Anything from quarts to precious stones like amethyst. The book called for one that related to my birthday. I ended up having to get help from the web.
Stones that would be good for me being an Aquarius came up as bloodstone heliotrope or a type of jasper, aquamarine, and jade. I read all kinds of information on them ranging from why they would be reasonable based on my zodiac to how all sorts of witches used them for spells, grounding stones to focus, or just to ward off negativity.
I happened to find all three in Gram's stockpile. I picked through the pieces until I found one of each that would look rather good together as they each had the same intense green in them. I had to venture out to the shed holding all the gardening tools to find a drill with a small enough bit to put a hole in each one before stringing them onto a chain I had lying around.
Drilling the holes in the stones ended up being a long process all on its own. I broke out a sweat before long. The rocks grew hot with the drill, which I cooled down with water. Jewelry making, I realized, was not a forte of mine or something I wanted to get into, after everything it took to get it all finished. Finally, I was done and ready to bless them.
I salted my circle then placed violet candled at each point, invoking the elements. I sat in the ring before I sprinkled herbs over the stones in a bowl. Allspice for luck, Angel's herb for purification, basil for protection, and cinnamon for even more protection. I then sprinkled fresh garden soil over them.
After sprinkling all that over it, I chanted the spell after centering myself and pulling up my spark. It was getting more natural to get it to respond with and without the centering. I loudly chanted three times.