by L.H. Cosway
“Hey, you lot wanna try fighting the old fashioned way?” Finn calls over to the collection of warlocks and witches on the opposite side of the road. In response, a tall, dark haired man steps out of the semi-circle formation to make some strange hand gestures at Finn. A second later a tidal wave of mist comes seeping toward us, knocking both of us off our feet. The magic clings to my skin like the humid air in a sauna, but it drifts away just as quickly as it came.
“Thought not,” Finn spits. “Taking the coward’s way out it is then.” We both get back to our feet, but then I see the warlock make another hand gesture and a second, more powerful mist heads our way. Wolf’s growl resonates through the street. Panic sets in, because some instinct deep inside of me tells me that this mist isn’t simply going to knock us off our feet like the last one. It feels as though someone else is taking over my body, like a long lost incarnation of myself, a self both familiar and completely strange, is rising to the surface.
With a steady arm I push Finn out of the way and sweep my hand across my body and to the left hand side, it reminds me of the gestures that the witches and warlocks make. But it can’t be the same, can it? I have no clue where the gesture came from, it’s a memory I never knew I possessed.
The warlock’s mist disintegrates with the sweep of my arm, and out of the palm of my hand fly hundreds of little silvery white electrical sparks, they flit like fairies, flying through the air at the warlock before me. His eyes widen in shock before the sparks make contact with his face and singe his skin. Oh God, that felt empowering and amazing. Suddenly I’m not so wary of this ball of magic Rita says I’ve got bubbling up in my belly.
The others are staring at me now, and Rita’s got a massive smile on her face. “Nice one, Tegan,” she calls, clapping her hands together.
Finn grabs my arm and drags me the rest of the way to Rita’s garden. “You’ll have to teach me that trick some time,” he says in a low voice, eyeing me with interest.
I’m still in absolute shock when I reply, “You’ll have to wait until I figure out where it came from first.”
When we join the others, an older warlock with short grey hair comes walking into the middle of the road where he stops and surveys our motley crew. His eyes land on me almost immediately and he asks, “Who are you, child?”
“Like she’s gonna answer to you,” says Rita in a pissed voice.
Simultaneously, Finn, Gabriel and Alvie stand in front of me, shielding me from the warlock’s gaze.
“You have lost your way, little one,” he says, still talking to me, his voice is almost hypnotising. “Come back to us,” then he opens his arms as if to welcome me home. There’s not a chance of me going anywhere near him. And what does he mean by ‘come back to us’? Does he think I’m some lost member of his family or something?
“She does not and never has belonged to you,” says Rita’s mother, speaking up. “You have destroyed my home Michael, is that not enough for you? Do you wish to see myself and my daughter dead too?”
There is a moment of silence, and all I can hear is the crash of wood as something breaks inside Rita’s house, it sounds like an entire floor has fallen through. The warlock named Michael’s gaze flits to the house, and a cruel smile covers his thin lips.
“Take this as a warning Noreen Doherty, if I ever find you trying to corrupt the children of my family again I will do a lot worse than burn your house down.” His eyes meet mine through a gap in the bodies that are currently shielding me. “We will meet again, little one,” he says with an intrigued expression.
At this he motions to those behind him, and it only takes a few moments for them to drift away and out of sight. Gone. Noreen slumps to the ground, her posture betrays her exhaustion. Rita hurries over to her mum and pulls her into a tight hug. Then a window from the top floor smashes outwards and we all just barely avoid being struck in the face by shards of glass.
“We have to leave now,” says Gabriel. “It’s not safe.” The sound of a fire engine wails in the distance, one of the neighbours must have called for it.
“Come on, I’ve got the van parked just down the road, we can go to my place. You lot can figure out what you’re going to do from there.” Finn offers.
We all huddle into the van. I sit across from Rita and her mother as they hold onto each other and cry silently. Seeing Rita display this kind of emotion startles me for a moment, since she’s always so confident and breezy about things. I suppose losing all of your worldly possessions as well as your home will do that to a person.
Gabriel is examining a small cut on Alvie’s face, perhaps not all of us avoided the shattered glass after all. Gabriel tries to dab away the blood with the sleeve of his shirt, it seems sort of intimate for some reason, but then he catches me watching and pulls away. Alvie’s expression is wounded. It makes me wonder if something is going on between the two of them.
When we get to Finn’s house everybody sits around the kitchen table, while Noreen goes about making a big pot of tea. A plan is going to be hatched. I leave to use the bathroom and end up staying in there for a good long while just staring into the mirror. The magic that I used tonight has me both fascinated and terrified. If I could summon up burning sparks like that without even consciously thinking about it, then what could I be capable of if I really put my mind to it?
Perhaps I’m a witch after all. Or perhaps my magic is an in built form of defence for women with my blood type. It makes sense that if we are going to be at the mercy of invincible vampires then we should at least have a fighting chance at defending ourselves. The magic I used tonight serves that purpose very well.
Finally, I splash some water over my face and leave the bathroom to find Finn coming up the stairs toward me.
“You were in there for a while,” he says, “I was just coming to check if you were all right.”
“I’m fine, I just needed a minute to process what happened tonight. What I did.”
“Yeah,” says Finn, rubbing his neck thoughtfully. “About that, is there something you’re not telling me?”
“What, that I’m a witch? Finn, I’m so fucking confused right now it’s not funny. Ever since I came back to Tribane I’ve been realising that my blood isn’t the only thing that’s different about me.”
“Well I’m sure Rita will help you figure it out,” he says, in an effort to comfort me.
“Yeah, I hope so.” We stand there on the landing for a minute in silence.
“So, um…” Finn begins. “We came to a conclusion downstairs while you were in the bathroom. That warlock from tonight, Michael Ridley, not only did he burn down Rita’s house, he also put spells on Gabriel and Alvie’s apartments. If anybody steps foot inside them their skin starts to melt.” I make a face of shock before Finn continues, “Disgusting I know, Gabriel found out the hard way. It’s a good thing dhamphirs heal quickly, or he’d be going around with a face like the elephant man for the rest of his days. Anyway, what this basically means is that our friends below don’t have any place to live at the moment, so I told them they could all stay here for a few nights. Is that okay with you?”
I nod. “Of course it is, it’s your house Finn. But where are they all going to sleep? There are only three bedrooms.”
Finn smiles and scratches his elbow, before saying, “Rita managed to haggle me into giving her and Noreen my room, the master bedroom. She’s going to perform a healing spell on my leg to help me walk normal again. If you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been limping like a motherfucker since I got shot.”
“That’s great. She can really heal it with magic?” I question.
“So she says,” Finn gives a shrug. “Alvie and Gabriel will be taking the empty room at the end of the hall, and that leaves me sleeping in with you for the time being.”
I give him a look. “Not happening Finn, Alvie can sleep in with me and you can bunk up with Gabriel.”
Finn looks uncomfortable for a minute, then says, “Um, the boys kind of requested a room tog
ether.”
I widen my eyes. I knew there was something going on with those two. I can’t help the smile that spreads across my lips. “That’s so cute, and surprising, I really thought Gabriel was straight when I first met him.”
Finn smirks. “Gabriel likes his bread buttered on both sides, if ya get me.”
“Oh.”
“Ah, give the guy a break. He’s pushing one-hundred and fifty, if I’d lived that long I’d probably be looking to shake things up in the bedroom department myself.”
I can’t stop the laugh that sputters from lips. “God, I never thought Gabriel was so old.”
“Dhamphirs can live for up to 500 years,” says Finn casually.
“I wonder how old Delilah is,” I mutter, half to myself.
Finn raises an eyebrow. “Cristescu’s sister? She’s younger than Gabe, probably only about eighty. Not bad looking for an old broad either.”
“Has Gabriel ever gotten in touch with Ethan or Delilah since I left?” I ask.
“I don’t think so, after the fight with Theodore on the island they all went back to ignoring the fact that they’re family, just like before.”
It makes me sort of sad, thinking about the rift between Gabriel and his half siblings. I look back at Finn then. “Fine, you can stay in with me, but keep your hands to yourself.”
“Are you forgetting whose house this is?” Finn asks, arms folded in amusement.
“Whatever.”
He smiles and pats me on the shoulder. “Come on, help me set up the rooms for our guests.” I sigh and follow him to the airing cupboard.
Chapter Ten
Remember the Daughter, and All That You Taught Her
Later that night, after everyone’s settled in their respective bedrooms, we all gather in the living room where Rita is preparing to cast a healing spell on Finn’s leg. Carefully, she unwraps the bandage to reveal a nasty looking wound, but at least it doesn’t appear to be infected. She gives it a prod with her finger and grins when Finn flinches in pain.
“Hey, what did you do that for?” Finn asks, clenching his jaw.
Rita shrugs. “Don’t know, I just felt like it.”
“You’d better hope this works, or else you can kiss goodbye to sleeping in the master bedroom.”
“Rita love, prepare the spell and quit messing around,” says Noreen. I look to the woman who is the spitting image of her daughter, except her features are slightly more aged and refined. I try to imagine her and Theodore together, but it just doesn’t seem to fit. Perhaps he’s not Rita’s dad after all.
Rita frowns at her. “Our house just burned to the ground Mum, let me get my happiness where I can.”
Noreen shakes her head. “I’ve told you time and again Rita, it is not a healthy reaction to derive pleasure from the pain of others.”
“I don’t really care what’s healthy and what isn’t right now,” says Rita dismissively, assembling the ingredients for her spell. I sit down beside her and ask her to explain to me what she’s going to do to heal Finn’s leg. Knowing that I have magic makes me want to gain a better understanding of what I can do with it.
“I had to pick these up at the market down the road, since all of my ingredients are back at the house and are more than likely incinerated at this point,” says Rita. “I was lucky too, because it’s late and the guy who works there was just ready to close up.” She starts tearing a range of herbal ingredients and throwing them into a big bowl. “I’m making a magical healing poultice to put on the wound, usually it takes a few hours to work, so he should be right as rain by morning.”
She picks up a spoon and begins mashing her concoction into a paste. “In here I’ve got echinacea, passionflower, root of ginger, aloe vera and tea tree oil. As a witch you need to know the correct properties of the herbs and other ingredients you use in your magic, because if you make a mistake, for instance by trying to use bee pollen in a healing spell when its function is to improve physical endurance, then you’re not going to get the result you were aiming for.”
“That makes sense,” I agree. I notice Noreen smiling proudly to herself out of the corner of my eye. She taught her daughter well.
Once finished mashing up her ingredients, Rita begins spooning them onto Finn’s wound. It looks all slimy and disgusting, but smells rather pleasant. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be at all outwardly magical. I’m a sucker for those shiny colours and lights.
“Would you like to be a part of the circle?” Rita asks me, I nod in enthusiasm.
Alvie comes over to sit with us and we all join hands. “All right, clear your minds boys and girls,” Rita begins, and we follow her directions, closing our eyes. “It would help if we could all envisage Finn’s leg healing tissue by tissue, knitting back together slowly until the skin is new again.” I try to do as she says, and the visualisation comes quite easily.
Finn sucks in a breath and says quietly, “The pain is receding already,” his is voice full of surprise.
We stay like that, holding hands and visualising for another minute or two before Rita’s voice fills the room again. “And now withdraw your thoughts.” Slowly I let my mind drift away from Finn’s leg and back to the present. I open my eyes and stare at the poultice, it doesn’t look gross any more, it’s all glittery and shimmering. Finn’s eyes are wide as he takes in the sight of his fairy dust covered wound. I smile and he meets my gaze, shaking his head in wonderment.
“You should go and rest now,” says Rita. Finn nods and rises from his seat, already walking distinctly straighter. He ascends the stairs, still shaking his head but not saying a word.
I sputter a laugh. “Now that’s definitely a first, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Finn speechless before.”
Rita shrugs her shoulders and addresses her mother, who has been sitting quietly beside Gabriel on the sofa all this time. “Mum, I want to go back to the house and see what I can salvage. There might be some things the fire didn’t get to.”
Noreen’s expression is worried. “I don’t think that would be safe honey, it’s only been a couple of hours.”
“I wasn’t asking,” is all Rita says in return, before getting up and stomping into the hallway. I hear her grabbing her goat from the hanger.
“I better go with her, make sure she’s okay,” says Alvie, hurrying out to Rita.
I see Noreen look to Gabriel pleadingly. “I’ll go too,” he says a second later, leaving me alone with Rita’s mum. The front door opens and shuts and they’re gone.
“Come on,” says Noreen, picking up the remnants of Rita’s healing spell. “Help me clean up this lot, will you love?”
I grab the bowl and follow her out to the kitchen. I hand it to Noreen and she begins rinsing it in the sink.
“Rita has always had a mind of her own,” she sighs, drying her hands on a dishcloth.
“I know. I think that’s one of the very first things I noticed about her,” I reply fondly, thinking of how much I disliked Rita when we first met. It’s odd when I consider just how much my opinion has changed since then.
Noreen goes to sit down by the table, wringing her hands, probably because she’s worried about the dangers of her daughter going into a dilapidated house.
She smiles at me then. “I’m glad you came back, Tegan. You’re the first friend Rita’s had since Alvie, and sometimes I don’t know how he even manages to put up with her sharp tongue. I suppose she’s always had to be independent, being the child of a one parent family.”
I sit down beside her and try to lighten the mood. “You know, for a while there I thought that Theodore might be Rita’s father, he kind of reminded me of her somehow. Where must my head have been, eh?”
Unfortunately, my attempt to make Noreen laugh doesn’t work. Her eyes widen in shock and she begins wringing her hands even more urgently now.
“Are you okay?” I ask, caught off guard by how she’s reacting.
Noreen is silent for a long minute before she whispers, “I was so yo
ung and foolish.”
Oh my God. Is she saying what I think she’s saying? Theodore is Rita’s dad. For some reason this revelation makes my heart thump loudly in my chest. And that’s not just because he’s the man who killed my mother. I knew there had to be a reason for Rita’s abilities with magic. This also makes me wonder about myself, and why exactly it is that I have magic in me too. My dad certainly is not a Sorcerer.
I remain quiet, waiting for Noreen to speak again. When she does she looks me directly in the eye. “I was only about your age, you know, when I had Rita. I became pregnant when I was travelling across Europe. I’d been spending a few months in Paris when I started keeping company with a group of Wiccans. I’d never heard of magic outside of fairy tales and story books before then. It was when they convinced me to join them at one of their rituals that I met Theodore.” She stops to take a deep breath, and I can see the memories as they flit across her deep brown eyes.
“He was intrigued to discover that I had been born and raised in Tribane, and began asking me lots of questions about the city. I know now why he was so interested, he hadn’t been able to return since he’d faked his own death, and I could tell him about the place he had once ruled over. His interest in me took me off guard, since he was the leader of the group and everyone seemed to worship the ground he walked on.”
I try to imagine a scenario where Theodore’s interest could be anything other than entirely creepy. But I can’t blame Noreen, surely she was too innocent to see past his flattery.
“What was he like?” I ask, intrigued to know whether Theodore had always been so terrifying and inhuman.
Noreen grins. “Admittedly, he wasn’t the handsomest of men, but he had a charisma about him that made it easy to look past his appearance. We spent a week or two together and within that time he taught me all about the supernatural world that had existed right under my nose. I learned a lot about witchcraft from him, I’ll admit that I was attracted to the idea of being able to do things other people couldn’t. I was so caught up in Theodore’s rhetoric that I became consumed by the desire to use magic to my advantage, to better my position in life. Then one day he disappeared and I never saw him again. I was angry at first and then I discovered I was pregnant,” she stops and grimaces.