I looked back at the small beach where I’d begun my trek and saw there was a cute little boat, complete with oars, waiting there for me.
“Oh, maybe that’s it,” I said. But when I turned back, Oliver was gone.
I shrugged and moved on, feeling hot and sticky by the time I reached the boat. But I must have been familiar with boats, because it didn’t give me a pause. I launched it carefully, jumped up into it and took over the oars. Shading my eyes, I looked at the island and saw the three ladies having a lovely time, drinking tea and snacking on little sandwiches. Suddenly I was so hungry!
I began to row, and then I noticed that the boat was filling with water.
“Hey!” I yelled. “What the heck?”
I began to bail, but it was filling much too fast, and I ended up going over the side and wading back to shore. Now I was sopping wet and getting so frustrated I could scream.
I looked back out at the happy tea drinkers and tried to signal the woman I assumed must be my grandmother. She saw me and waved, then went on talking to her friends. I stared at them. I couldn’t believe this.
I heard someone clearing his throat and turned to find Oliver sitting behind a rock at the edge of the water. I stared at him. I could hardly believe this. Why was he hiding? It just seemed so silly. Not to mention, annoying.
I glared at him and said, “What is this, the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party? I know the town square area is being made over to look like something out of a story book, but I didn’t realize that would be the way it was out here, too.”
He looked out stealthily, as though he didn’t want my grandmother to see him talking to me.
“Don’t you see that she is testing you?” he whispered. “Use your magic.”
“Magic? What magic?” But I suddenly remembered how it had felt to stop time the night before. And the copy machine incident. Was that what he meant? I turned and looked at the island. I knew I couldn’t just give up and head back to town. He was right, this was a challenge and I had to meet it. But what could I do? Stopping time, if I figured out how to do it again, wasn’t going to get me over the water and onto the island. What would?
I looked at the bridge. It looked broken. Could I fix it? And the boat. It had sunk to the bottom by now. What else? I took a deep breath. I was going to feel very silly if this didn’t work. But I had to try something.
I stepped down to the edge of the water and I raised my hands. Concentrating with all my might, I whispered, “Water deep, waters wide, part yourself and let me inside.” Where that verse had come from I had no clue. But suddenly it was there, rolling off my tongue as though I used it all the time.
However, nothing happened.
“Part,” I said aloud.
Nothing.
But what did I expect? Why should waters part for me? This was crazy. I ought to go back to my car and….
I took a deep breath. No. I couldn’t do that. Now they were all looking at me. I had to do something. It was now or never. I clenched everything in my body that was clenchable, and that wasn’t hard, because I was angry as I’d ever been.
“Part, waters, part!” I yelled with all my might.
With barely a sound, the waters parted and left a clear, dry path to the island. Stunned, I muttered a little thank-you prayer and headed for dry land as fast as I could. I had no idea how long this would last. I had
barely made it to the other side when the waters came rippling back. I stood there, catching my breath, and my grandmother came out to greet me.
“Well, I had thought you might do better walking on the stones in the water,” she was saying. “But I suppose this will do for now.”
I looked back and sure enough, there were rocks making a path through the lake, just poking out of the water enough to be stepping-stones. I hadn’t noticed them before, and something made me suspicious. Had she just cast some sort of spell to put them out there now? I had a feeling….
“Come, you must have some tea.”
I followed her to the table. The two young women had vanished, if they’d ever really been there. Oh, I was getting wily now. I didn’t believe a thing I was told—or saw. A grandmother who would test her grandchild at first meeting was not to be trifled with. I had a live grenade in my life, didn’t I?
But I could barely walk. I was super tired and needed to sit for a bit. She directed me to a chair opposite where she was sitting and she poured out tea and passed the finger sandwiches. Meanwhile she began my lessons.
Oh yes. My grandmother, whom I didn’t remember knowing, who supposedly hadn’t seen me in years, skipped all the niceties of family warmth and went right to the continuing perfection of her progeny. At least, that was the way it felt. She began to school me on just what sort of people I came from.
“I’m so glad to see you’re exploring your magic,” she said. “That’s going to be very important for you.”
“Really?” That wasn’t much of a response, but what more could I say? I was pretty much dazed and confused at this point. It occurred to me that doing that magic sort of trick or whatever it was had really drained me of all my strength—at least for the short haul.
“Yes dear. The brand of magic our family has developed over the years can be divided along two lines. Our most helpful and convenient magic seems to be one that isn’t particularly deep, or particularly wide, but it is quick and situational. It is meant more to help you get out of trouble than to change your life. It’s for emergencies rather than a facet of a lifestyle.”
I nodded, taking a sip of the tea. It was delicious, light and exotic. I enjoyed it, then began to worry about what might be in it. But if anything was, it seemed to have restorative powers, because the more I drank, the less drained I felt.
“Wait,” I said as I thought of something. “That explanation covers parting the water and saving my little dog from being hit by a car last night. But what about my imaginary mountain in the middle of the town square?”
Incredibly, she seemed to know all about it without my having to explain.
“Ah.” She nodded at me and her eyes narrowed as she studied my face. “I’m quite surprised you were able to do that so soon. It might be a good sign. Or it might be--”, she shrugged, “evil.”
“Oh?” That seemed to be a rather broad possibility but she skimmed right past it.
“We’ll be training you in that sort of thing later on, I’m sure. But for now, avoid it.”
I stared at her. “Avoid the imaginary mountain?” I asked, wishing I knew how I could do that. It had been an experience I really didn’t want to repeat. If she had some magic words for me to use to avoid it, I was all ears.
She nodded. “Stay away from that part of the park. I can’t be sure at this juncture, but it seems to me that you might have found where your deep magic is lurking. Your presence ignites it, and until you understand how to use it, that can be very dangerous.”
“I see.” Though I didn’t at all.
“For now, you need to practice a few life-saving stunts. You’re going to need them.”
I faced her. She was light and pretty, though quite old, all flowers and ruffles and smiling blue eyes.
“I’m going to need life-saving stunts?” I said. “Why?”
She patted my hand. “A little background. Historically, this area has been considered a protected enclave for our kind. We’ve been able to exist quietly and happily, coexisting with regular humans comfortably, without the challenges we meet in the larger world.”
“Our k-k-kind?” I stumbled over the word. My heart was beating so fast I put a hand over it, hoping to calm it before I collapsed. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear this. “Wh-what do you mean?”
She gave me a pitying glance, then smiled as if to soften the effect. “My dear, relax. You can’t deny your destiny. You can’t flush away your genetic heritage by wishing it gone. You must understand that you are not a normal human being.”
“Oh yeah?” I wanted to fight back, but I knew it was u
seless. And probably childish at that. “What am I then?”
“You’re one of us.” She patted my hand again. “We’ve always called ourselves People of the Light. Other people call us names that are not quite as kind. But the fact is, it is our destiny to save the world from the evil infection that is always working, in secret as well as out in the open, to take control.”
“Demons?” I said the word without thinking. Where had that come from? Probably from things people had said to me. Hadn’t Bentley mentioned them? And maybe Shane?
She looked at me sharply. “Yes. What do you know about demons?”
She said the word as though it pained her to pronounce it. I had a picture of her squashing a demon flat, then picking it up by the tail and dropping it in the trash. Which was pretty funny, except that I really didn’t know what a demon looked like. Did they have tails? Who knew?
“Not a thing.” I shook my head. “I have no clue about demons.”
“Well, you’ll soon know all too much.” She sighed. “In the meantime, we have to contend with ordinary people who don’t really understand the peril we face for them every day. They don’t know that we are standing between them and the darkness. In fact, when they realize what we are, they tend to react with fear and prejudice. That is why we have to keep a very low profile.”
“Okay,” I said automatically. “And what about the hunters?”
She didn’t look pleased. “You’ve heard about the hunters?”
I nodded.
“Yes. They are a special class of beings who feel it is their right—even their duty—to police the situation between us and the humans--right along with the demons. They often seem to get in the way more than they help, in my humble opinion. I’m not a fan.”
This all sounded like complete rot on one level—and scary truth on another. Which was it? Hard to know. But it seemed to me, if this was our reality, I’d better know as much about it as I could glean. Otherwise I was going to be vulnerable to danger from all sides.
“Is it true that Shane McAllister is a hunter?”
She sighed and her shoulders sank. “Yes. Unfortunately. I understand that you and he were once friends. But you don’t remember that, surely?”
I hesitated. I wanted to be as honest as I could. “I don’t remember him,” I said. “But I feel a special tie to him anyway. I feel it strongly.” And as I said the words, I realized it was true.
She stared at me, then she smiled. “Are you sure it’s not just regular old sexual attraction?” she asked.
For some reason, that sparked an anger in me and I had to fight to keep from saying something harsh.
“No,” I said shortly. “It’s much more than that.”
She shrugged. “Well, I suppose we’ll have to deal with that at some point. Try not to take any foolish risks. That sort of male is always a problem.”
I pressed my lips together tightly to keep from talking back.
“Now explain to me why you haven’t taken possession of the Bar and Grill yet.”
I looked at her sharply. More evidence that she was behind what had been happening to me, wasn’t it? “It’s not that easy. There are legal hoops to jump through.”
“But Oliver tells me that awful man, Scotty something, has been killed.” She sighed. “That wasn’t part of the scheme I had in mind. Things are beginning to happen too quickly if you ask me. But we can adjust. And anyway, he’s gone so that should clear the way I’d think.”
I stared at her, horrified. “Did you have anything to do with that?” I asked her. I hardly knew this woman at this point, but somehow I had a feeling she was beyond regular human constraints. Who knew what she might do?
She fanned herself with a lacy handkerchief. “Heavens no. He’s an ordinary human. We don’t allow killing of humans if we can help it. In fact, it’s strictly against our terms of service.”
That was a relief. “Well, someone seems to have killed him. And the building has been condemned by the mayor’s office. It’s scheduled for demolition.”
“Yes, well, we’ll quickly take care of that little obstacle. What were you thinking to do with the place?”
I hadn’t really given it that much thought. “I don’t know. Am I supposed to run it? You’re the one who seems to be behind all this. What do you have in mind for the Bar and Grill?”
“I prefer to call it the Greco Café, if you don’t mind.” She thought for a moment, ate a cookie, then said, “Yes, I have it. We’ll turn it into a sandwich shop. There are a couple of nice apartments upstairs. You can fix one up as your living quarters.”
I shook my head. This was all so confusing. What if I didn’t want to live there? The building itself was such a mess, I sort of agreed with it being condemned. But she sailed on to another topic and I didn’t have time to make my complaints clear.
“Now tell me dear, do you remember anything at all from your earlier life?”
I shook my head. “I was hoping you were going to tell me all about it,” I said haltingly. Emotions were clouding the issue again. Darn it all! Why couldn’t I keep them better in check? “I assume this is mostly your fault.”
“My fault?” She looked affronted.
“Yes. Don’t you already know all about me? I have a feeling you rigged this whole thing.”
“‘Rigged?’” She drew herself up. “I don’t ‘rig’ anything my dear. I orchestrate. I produce. I manage. I create. But I don’t ‘rig’.”
“Whatever you want to call it, you set me up. Didn’t you?” My anger at the whole situation was growing again.
She looked somewhat perplexed. “Well, I do know a good bit about what you’ve been going through. I have eyes and ears everywhere you know, and a lot of influence with certain factions.”
I pulled air in and held it, then let it out and said, “Did you do this to me? Did you cause me to lose all my memories?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re overdramatizing,” she said.
Overdramatizing. Was she really as unfeeling as she seemed? She could take my life and manipulate it to her own ends and not even feel a twinge of guilt?
“Did you think I was going to thank you for what you’ve done?” I said.
Those pale blue eyes were glaring at me now.
“Sorry,” she said curtly. “Of course, you can’t remember what a horrid little juvenile delinquent you were. Lucky you!”
Amazing. “You do want me to thank you.”
She sniffed. “In a manner of speaking. But let’s put it this way. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be alive and well today.”
That shocked me. “What? Why?”
She let out a sigh of exasperation. “Don’t bother with it now. You’ll find out everything soon enough. What you need to do now is to toughen up a bit, learn some self discipline, and get ready for the fight.”
This was just too much. What was wrong with this lady? Could she really be my own flesh and blood? But wait—they said I was cold blooded. Maybe she was why.
“What am I supposed to do to get ready for the fight? Take a mixed martial arts course? Learn kick boxing?”
She barely blinked. “Of course. Learning to defend yourself properly is a part of everything else. This isn’t going to be easy, you know. You’re going to need strength and cunning. Be prepared.”
“Join the boy scouts?” I said sarcastically.
She glared at me again. “No. But maybe you could abandon the effort at snarky humor. It does not become you.”
I took a deep breath. “Are you really my grandmother?”
“Yes. And you are really my granddaughter. We don’t get to choose these things you know. We have to deal with what we’re given.”
That was a hard one to swallow. “What shall I call you?”
“Let’s see.” She frowned for a few seconds. “Oh, I have it. You may call me Gran Ana.”
“You mean like, rhymes with banana?”
Her eyes flashed blue fire. “No, like-Gran Ana.” She looked
exasperated. “If you will please control yourself for a few more minutes, I have some things I must tell you. First, take this cabochon.”
I held my hand out and she put a large rock in it. I opened my fingers and saw that it was a beautiful gemstone of a size that just fit into my palm.
“That is an aquamarine, my dear. Quite valuable. You must keep it with you at all times.”
I could hardly breathe. Something about it seemed magical already--a beautiful blue-green color, as though a slice of the sea had been caught in it. I felt like I was holding a piece of nature, something alive and necessary to help me survive.
“It’s so beautiful,” I murmured, transfixed as I stared at it, stared into it.
“Yes. It is our family gemstone. It is the source of much of our power. But you will learn about that as we go. For now, just know that this is the instrument of our communication. You must keep it with you at all times. If I need you, it will glow with an emerald green color and be hot to the touch. Then you will know you must contact me immediately.”
I looked at her, impressed and grateful. “It’s so beautiful,” I said again, and she smiled.
“Someday I will show you my room of gemstones,” she said softly. “You’ll surely understand everything once you’ve spent some time there.”
“I would like that,” I said. “Where should I keep this?”
“You must keep it in contact with your body at all times. I’d advise wearing it inside your bra.”
I made a face. “That won’t work.”
“Try it,” she said.
I did, slipping it into the side area. It seemed to mold its hard structure to the form of my body right under my right arm. I could tell it was in a place where it would stay without a problem—even though it really didn’t make much sense.
“What if I lose it?” I asked.
She looked at me archly. “Then you had better run very fast, very far, because you will be open to all sorts of enemies. Just don’t do it.”
“But…”
She raised her hand.
“You have definitely worn me out. That’s enough for today. Come back tomorrow and we’ll talk some more. If I have the strength to face you again.”
Even Witches Get the Blues (Wicked in Moonhaven~A Paranormal Cozy Book 1) Page 9