by AJ Myers
“I’d be happy to show you which one it is,” he murmured as his hands slid down my arms. “For a price, of course. Maybe a kiss?”
What the hell am I doing? I thought when I found myself starting to turn in his arms. I had done it again, fallen into his trap. I stopped and shook myself. It wasn’t a gentle shake, either, but the kind that causes brain damage in small children. Angry with him and myself, I jerked away from him and turned around to give him a glare over my shoulder that was hot enough to set the forest around us on fire. When I saw the smugly triumphant smile on his face, I wanted to set him on fire. Knowing I had no one to blame but my own weak, stupid self, I faced forward again and started stomping in the direction he had pointed me toward.
Nathan: 1 Me: 0
“It’s the tree with gray bark,” Nathan called after me. When I turned around to give him another glare, he just smiled. “I’ll expect that kiss later.”
“Yeah, just hold your breath and wait,” I muttered, facing forward again.
When I finally found the tree Nathan had described, I set the pot with the violet on the ground and pulled the knife out of my back pocket.
“Get ready to eat crow, Grams,” I muttered.
And I cut myself. More pissed off than hurt by the stinging pain in my palm, I dropped the knife and curled my hand into a fist, letting a few drops fall onto the violet. Nothing happened. Nada. Not a single damn thing. So much for Grams’ theory that I was some badass blood witch. I couldn’t wait to get back and rub her nose in the fact that she’d been wrong. I was chuckling at the vision of her expression in my mind when I turned toward the tree and slapped my bleeding palm against the trunk.
It exploded.
The force of the blast knocked me off my feet, sending me flying ten feet into a scraggly, thorny bush. I curled up and covered my head with my arms as bark and twigs—all that was left of what had been a perfectly healthy tree only seconds before—rained down on me.
When I thought it was safe, I peeked out from under my arm and took in the devastation. The Mountain Ash was gone…and so was Grams’ favorite violet. The pot it had been in was smashed, and the poor flower that had been flourishing under Grams’ tender care for years was wilted and dead-looking.
Still shell-shocked from the exploding tree, I managed to get to my feet. Stumbling every other step, I walked over and snatched the dead flower out of the potting soil clinging stubbornly to its roots and closed my bloody fist around the stem.
Nathan was waiting for me on the path back to Grams’. At the sight of me walking out of the trees, pale-faced and filthy with my hair full of bark and twigs, his eyes flared wide. When he started laughing, I started plotting his murder again.
“Did you know that was going to happen?” I demanded, planting my hands on my leaf-covered hips and giving him a look that should have fried him right there on the spot. “Did you, Nathan?”
“I think you need a shower,” he choked out between guffaws of laughter. “Sorry, love. I couldn’t resist.”
With all the dignity I had left, I propped my hands on my hips and tried to glare him into silence. The shower of leaves and bark that rained down when I tossed my hair back only made him laugh harder.
“Oh, shut up,” I grumbled as I stalked past him.
Grams was sitting at the table with a crossword puzzle and a cup of coffee when I walked back in. She looked up when I slammed the door behind me, then just sat back in her chair, taking a sip of her coffee to hide her smile.
“You knew that would happen, didn’t you?” I asked woodenly, staring out the window over her shoulder. I was afraid to look directly at her for fear that I might not be able to resist the urge to strangle her.
“Of course I did,” she said, starting to laugh herself. “Bandraoithe are called blood witches for a reason, Ember. Do you believe me now?”
I walked over to the table and dropped the dead flower on top of her puzzle before turning and leaving the room, the idea of a shower the only thing keeping me from becoming homicidal. The sound of her laughter followed me all the way up the stairs.
Demon Bashing 101
After the exploding Ash, I didn’t argue with her anymore…well, not much, anyway. When she told me what to do, I did it. When she told me I wasn’t doing it right, I did it again. That means I repeated the same thing over and over and over—a lot.
My first witchy-lesson-gone-wrong was levitation. According to Grams, it was the most basic of lessons for a bandraoi. And it really did seem kind of simple when she explained the mechanics of it. 1. Center yourself. 2. Feel yourself become lighter than air. 3. Float. Easy, right?
Wrong.
“You’re not focusing, Ember,” Grams snapped as I glared at her from the floor after I’d tried to levitate about five thousand times.
“If I focus any harder, I’m going to have an aneurysm,” I snapped right back. “I’m doing exactly what you told me, Grams! It’s not working!”
“Um, Em,” Nathan said from the corner of the room, chuckling.
“Don’t start,” I hissed without looking at him, suddenly feeling all buzzy again. “I mean it, Nathan. Don’t. Start.”
“But, Em…”
“What?” I snapped my head around to look at him and my eyes widened to the size of saucers when I found us on eye level—something that shouldn’t have been possible since I was sitting on the floor.
“You’re floating,” he said with a grin at the same time Grams cried, “Keep focusing!”
I had about a split second to enjoy the rush of triumph surging through my body before it all came to a crashing end—literally. One second I was airborne and the next I was falling. My butt came into contact with Grams’ hard wood floor with enough force to crack bones. I laid back with a groan, sure I would never be able to sit down again, and looked up to see Grams smiling down at me while Nathan stayed in his corner—the only smart thing he’d done since the day we met—doubled over laughing.
“Again,” Grams said, causing me to moan. “This time, let’s try a little more focus and a little less anger, shall we?”
I had two words for her: Nursing. Home.
My next lesson was a charm to keep other creatures from sensing me if a time came when I needed to hide from Jack and the waking nightmares he was so good at giving me. Another one of Grams’ Being a Witch for Dummies lessons that should have been easy as pie and turned out to be hard as hell. By the time it was over, I was wishing for levitation lessons. Because, unfortunately, that lesson left me playing hide and seek with my vampire stalker.
And Nathan kept winning.
“I suck at this,” I whined when he found me for the fourth time, hidden in Grams’ pantry.
“Yes, but this is fun.” He grinned when I glared at him and proceeded to back me into the shelf behind me. “Locked with you in a pantry…not ideal, but I’ll take it.”
“You know, I’m really starting to miss that guy who wanted to dump me and run,” I muttered as he moved in even closer. “What happened to that plan?”
“I changed my mind.”
“Why?” I asked, looking around desperately for an escape. Given there were about four cubic inches of space in the closet I was trapped in, and Nathan was taking up most of it, there weren’t a lot of ways I could run.
“You enchanted me,” he whispered…and for some reason I didn’t think he was teasing me anymore. “Besides, I couldn’t leave without collecting what I’m owed, could I? I believe you still owe me a kiss…”
Before I could duck around him and escape, he pulled me close, melding our bodies together from head to toe. And, God, did he feel good! I tried to hold myself as stiffly as possible, but it was a futile effort. I couldn’t do anything but stare up at him as his lips slowly started to descend toward mine. Just when I was kissing any hope of resisting him goodbye, the pantry door flew open, bathing us in the bright sunlight coming through the kitchen windows.
“You cheated, Nate,” Grams said, hands on her hi
ps.
“Why would you think that?” Nathan asked, not looking away from my face.
“Because there wasn’t a trace of her essence to be found,” Grams told him, scowling. “You found her by her thoughts, didn’t you?”
No, not by my thoughts. By my mark. I saw it in his eyes, that little spark of guilt, and suddenly wanted to break his nose. I had been trying for hours to do the spell Grams had taught me so I could hide from Jack, and he had let me think I was failing over and over again.
“You told me to find her,” Nathan countered, holding me trapped with his eyes alone. “I found her. Go away.”
But the moment had passed. Feeling shaken to my very core, I pushed him away from me and ran past him and Grams both. The second I was outside, I stopped and took several deep breaths to try to calm my racing heart and the tingles still chasing each other across my skin.
One more second and I would have been his. One kiss was all it would have taken. I accepted the truth right then and there. I had lost before the game even began, and when he walked away, he would do it with my heart in his hands.
Grams and I spent that afternoon in the kitchen, and I noticed she made a point not to mention the episode in the pantry. I would catch her watching me every now and then, her expression sad, but she kept her opinions to herself. For that I was grateful. I didn’t want to talk about how out of control things were starting to get where Nathan was concerned. I just wanted to get my witchy lessons over with, go home, and cry on my bestie’s shoulder.
I wished almost every minute that I could talk to Kim about Nathan. He was becoming like that itch you just can’t scratch. You know, the kind that keeps right on itching until it’s all you can think about? Yeah, that was Nathan. Even though I did my best not to look at him or talk to him, his face was all I ever seemed to see, his voice all I wanted to hear. So, yeah, a little girl talk was definitely in order.
It wouldn’t have been so bad if he had just stopped haunting my dreams. Every time I closed my eyes, he was there waiting for me. I wasn’t dreaming of the past, either, but of a present and a future that would never be. Knowing those dreams were all I was ever going to have was worse than having nothing at all.
Nathan wasn’t the only one haunting my dreams, either. Jack had become a real nightmare—literally. He made regular appearances in my dreams. He scared the hell out of me, but there seemed to be a shield around me that kept him from hurting me again.
“It’s a protection spell,” Grams explained when I told her about the nightmares and how I felt different than I had when he’d tried to roast me alive. “I put it on you the night you arrived, after Nate told me what happened in Colorado. He can’t get past it unless he is actually with you in physical form. I’m working on a more powerful spell to cast on you before you go back, but at least you’re safe in your dreams for now.”
Wonderful. He couldn’t burn me in my sleep, but he could still roast me in person. Didn’t I feel reassured?
Um, no. Definitely not.
“Now, enough distractions,” Grams said, placing all the jars she had been scurrying around the kitchen collecting on the counter in front of me. “You’re not nearly ready for healing lessons, so I am going to teach you how to make a potion that will heal most wounds.”
Cooking? Oh, that wasn’t good.
“Um, Grams, you do know that I tend to burn toast, right?” I asked, giving the huge pot she pulled from beneath the counter a look that clearly said I thought it would bite me.
“Then it’s time to learn a new skill,” Grams said brightly. “Let’s get started.”
You know those horror stories you hear about Chem Lab accidents? Yeah, it went just that bad. Two hours, three of her best pots, a serious burn, and lots of tears—from me, not Grams—and Grams gave up.
“I would swear you were doing it on purpose if you weren’t so upset,” Grams muttered as we escaped the kitchen. The noxious fumes coming from the giant hole in the countertop my ‘potion’ had created would have been enough to drive anyone out for fear of permanent lung damage.
“I tried to warn you,” I told her, my voice hoarse from breathing in toxic waste for the last hour. “I’m probably going to kick myself for asking, but what’s next?”
“I’m almost afraid to try anything else,” she replied, flipping through her book again. When her eyes lit up, I feared the worst. “Tell me, sweetheart, what do you think of attempting some mental shields?”
“Huh?” I asked, not having the first clue what she was talking about.
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Nathan said at the same time, dropping the magazine he had been reading.
“Shields protect the mind, Ember,” Grams said, grinning from ear to ear. Nathan looked like he was wishing for laser vision so he could kill her without having to get up. “They keep people out of your head, leaving your thoughts private. Interested in that, by any chance?”
After having spent almost a week with Nathan? Hell yeah I was interested in that!
I did everything Grams told me to do without asking a single question or complaining once. I envisioned my thoughts as little bubbles floating in space for anyone to see and hear. Then, following Grams’ instructions, I created a barrier around them, like a big dome that contained all those little thought bubbles.
But, it was all for nothing in the end. No matter what we tried, nothing worked to keep Nathan out of my head. When we finally called it quits and Nathan gave me a smug little smile and a wink, I wanted to throw something at him.
I turned to find Grams giving him a narrow-eyed look herself. I thought I saw her eyes flicker to my scarf for a second, but when she shook her head and walked over to get another one of her endless books to torture me with, I decided I must have imagined it.
“All right. I guess it’s time to get down to business.” Laying the book on the desk next to her, she rapidly flipped through the brittle, yellowed pages. When she found the page she was looking for, she turned and looked at me. “Ember, may I borrow your necklace, sweetheart?”
My hand immediately flew up to the cross I hadn’t taken off since Nathan had given it to me. My first instinct was to say no, she couldn’t have it. I glanced at Nathan only to find him staring back at me, his expression totally unreadable.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” Grams muttered. “I’m not going to steal it. I will give it right back.”
“No,” Nathan said as I started to pull the leather cord over my head. “Damn it, Shea! I don’t want her to do this!”
“And I don’t want her to die,” Grams said, her voice sharp. “Do you think this is what I wanted for her? Well, it is not. But there is no other way, Nate.”
“You do it!” he hissed, walking over to stand next to me. “She’s had no training. You’ve had years of it. It makes more sense for you to confront him than for her to do it.”
“Don’t you think I would if I could?” Grams shouted, throwing up her hands in frustration. “It’s not that simple! It has to be her, Nate. I’ve already seen it!”
Nathan went so rigid at my side that I was afraid he was going to snap in half. Confused, I looked back and forth between the two of them. What the hell did that mean, she’d seen it? If I was hoping one of them would explain, it was in vain. They were too busy glaring at each other to explain anything.
“Your necklace please, Ember,” Grams said in a low, cold voice, never taking her eyes off Nathan.
Slowly, I walked over and placed the cross in her open palm. Tearing her eyes from Nathan, she gave me a strained smile and turned back to her book. Looking over her shoulder curiously, I found myself looking at an illustration like nothing I’d ever seen. It was in the shape of a pentagram with circles around it composed of what appeared to be an incantation in Latin. In the center of the pentagram was a triangle with what looked like an eye drawn in the center of it.
“This is known as the Triangle of the Arts,” Grams explained as she carefully laid my cross on the illus
tration, making sure to put the three-part knot directly over the eye in the center of the triangle. “When enclosed inside a sacred circle, it is better known as a Devil’s Trap. Using an old incantation that only a few souls left on Earth know, I am going to channel the power of the trap into your necklace. Do you understand so far?”
“Uh…no,” I told her honestly. She glanced over at me and I saw her lips twitch. Rolling my eyes, I said, “Speak English, Grams. I don’t speak Witch.”
“In essence, we’re going to turn the very powerful symbol on your necklace into a Devil’s Trap,” she said, giving Nathan another angry look when he started to protest again that had him snapping his mouth shut. Smart move on his part, in my opinion. “Once that is done, I am going to show you how to activate it.”
“How are you going to do that?” I asked, frowning. “I mean, don’t you have to have a demon or something?”
“Yes, you do.”
“And…what?” I asked, rolling my eyes. “You have one locked in the basement or something?”
“No, she’s going to summon one,” Nathan growled. “You can’t levitate, you can’t cook up a simple potion, and your mental shield isn’t worth the time you wasted to form one, but she’s going to summon a being of pure evil and expect you to get rid of it. Isn’t that about the gist of it, Shea?”
“Actually, yes,” Grams said, shrugging. When my mouth fell open and I started to feel like I was going to hyperventilate, she patted me on the arm. “I’ll be right here, sweetheart. You don’t have to face them alone.”
“Them?!” I squeaked in terror.
“Well, you didn’t think you were going to get it on the first try, did you?” she asked, starting to sound annoyed.
“This should be interesting,” Nathan muttered, leaning his hip against the doorframe and crossing his arms over his chest.
“You can go if you like, Nate,” Grams said without looking up from the incantation she was reading.
“If it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll stick around and make sure you don’t get her killed,” he said, his tone icy. I choked on a hysterical snort of laughter when Grams, without even turning around, flipped him off.