Tori pulled Nick by his large tattooed forearm to another shady place out of earshot of Summer and Jackson, where they planted themselves on the grass, trying not to watch.
Feeling incredibly uncomfortable, Summer broke the silence between them with, “Your nose? It’s okay?”
He reached for his nose and said, “Yeah, it’s fine.”
“Look, I don’t know what was said between you and Hunter or why you were even fighting, but I’m sorry for insinuating you were a danger to me. I don’t feel that way,” Summer said.
“I appreciate that,” he said quietly.
“I have to say, though, I’m very unsure about what this is. I feel like I shouldn’t speak of certain things. When I do, you seem to…I don’t know…pull away, I guess,” Summer tried to explain.
“It’s not your fault. You’re right. There are things about my past I am…ashamed of and I don’t know how to respond to questions that may refer to that time of my life.”
“Why can’t you just tell me what it’s all about?” Summer asked.
“Because I’m not sure how you’ll react. What if you find it too horrible to deal with and you won’t see me anymore?”
“At this point, don’t you think if you don’t tell me, I might do the same thing? I’m not saying I will, but you’ve got to admit you’re not telling me is causing a problem too,” Summer said.
“Yeah, I do see that. It’s just, well, it’s hard. Nick’s the only one I’ve ever told.”
“I’m sorry it’s so hard. I wish it weren’t,” she empathized.
He took a deep breath. “My father was a dignitary and my family moved all over the world. His biggest career move was to the Japanese consulate. He had this gift for languages and picked them up very fast. My father spent the bulk of his time in Tokyo, but my mother, my brother and I set up residence in Hakone. I was sixteen when we moved and my brother was eighteen. My brother had always been a handful for my parents and he and my father butted heads constantly. Far away from the bustling city of Tokyo, I took an interest in the himitsu-bako crafting.”
“That’s the puzzle box craft you told me about?” Summer interjected.
“Yes. I had a knack for the woodworking and was privileged enough to work under Master Yoshito Yamamoto when he was first out on his own.”
“Sounds exciting.”
“It was, but that all changed with one visit from my brother. My brother, Victor, came home one night after been gone for almost a month. He was pale white and acting strange. He spoke of the city and the excitement he had found there, and begged me to go with him. My mother was beside herself with worry. She saw something was wrong with him. She asked me to go with him to see if he was in trouble or report back where he went off to when he wasn’t home. I agreed for her sake and traveled with my brother that very evening.
“We traveled during the night and he slept through the day in an abandoned barn. We traveled more that evening until we came to a small city. It was late when we got there, but it seemed as if everyone was out and about.
“Victor took me to what appeared to be some kind of whorehouse. I wasn’t sure why we were there, but I knew I wanted to leave. Victor introduced me to an ancient looking woman made up like a geisha. The white rice powder was so thick and badly painted it looked more like a horrific attempt at some kind of clown face. She looked at me as if she was going to devour me and this seemed to thrill Victor, making him laugh out loud.
“She nodded some kind of acceptance to Victor and then he took me up the stairs to a very nice room. He told me to rest up. He said the Dragon Lady was pleased with me.
“I didn’t understand. I told him I wanted to go home and that I didn’t like the Dragon Lady and really didn’t care if she was happy with me or not. Victor went pale. ‘You should care. She’s a real dragon you know. She’ll eat you alive if she’s not pleased,’ he told me.
“Then he left, locking me in my room. The next evening I would understand why I was there and why my brother looked and acted the way he did. That night several other young men came in with my brother with the Dragon Lady. They held me down and she bit and turned me into a vampire, first draining my blood while all the men watched hungrily. She cut her own flesh with her long metal talon nails and she poured her blood into my mouth. Then they left me locked and alone in the room.
“The following evening I had a furious hunger I’d never had and it ruled me and made me its monster. They delivered my dinner, a young Japanese girl no older than me and one of the men had bitten and cut her before tossing her into the locked room with me and I—”
“You fed,” Summer interjected.
“Yes, but more than that, I killed her. I devoured her like some starved lion or bear,” he said then paused for a long while. Summer could only guess he was trying to gather courage to continue. She figured revealing these truths about himself was paining him greatly.
He cleared his throat and started again. “The next few days were a blur. They kept me starved until I was to perform for a paying customer. Seems that there were women willing to pay for the likes of a young, blue-eyed man to service…them,” he said, blushing as much as a vampire can blush.
“The Dragon Lady and my brother would find wealthy women willing to pay…for me. In the meantime they starved me. When they found a customer they’d feed me some young girl satiating my hunger, and then throw me to the woman who paid,” he relayed with shame.
“But you didn’t have to do anything. I mean, how could they make you do anything?” she asked.
“After feeding like that, ravenous and then satiated, the blood is like a drug. I felt wonderful: high as a kite. I barely knew what I was doing. Later when bits and pieces of what transpired with those women came back to me, I realized what I had done. Those were the nightmares—reliving the sex acts—it was like watching a movie of your evil twin carrying out acts you would’ve never done and finding it was you all along. You had no control or will power to stop yourself.
“This went on for a long while—years maybe. I haven’t any idea how long before I learned to control myself and my hunger. This angered the Dragon Lady. She was losing money. I wouldn’t perform for the patrons and she was having none of that.
“She and Victor threatened me with the lives of my father then my mother. I worked for a while until I found out they were empty threats: Victor had already stripped them of any wealth they had and killed them when they were of no use to him. The Dragon Lady then threatened my brother’s life, but I knew he was long gone. He, like the other men who had held me down when I was turned, were vampire slaves to this horrible woman.”
“So how did you get away?”
“I killed her,” he said bluntly.
“And your brother? What happened to him?” Summer asked.
Tears welled in his beautiful green eyes until one let loose and fell down his cheek leaving a shiny trail behind. “I killed him. He attacked me when he found me over the Dragon Lady’s body with the wooden chair leg I’d used to pierce her heart.”
“It was self-defense. He would have killed you. You didn’t have a choice,” Summer said.
“I had a choice. I could have chosen to have Victor take my life that day. It wouldn’t have been a bad choice. After what I had become, death sounded rather appealing. It was only that I knew if I died, Victor would only do something similar again with another. That’s the only reason I chose to live. I couldn’t allow it to happen again—some other innocent being turned and used like that. It was inhuman and I had to end it.”
“You made the right choice,” Summer said, patting his hand on the table between them.
“I wonder about that a lot.” He stared off.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure,” he said, still avoiding her eyes.
“If the Dragon Lady was really a vampire and not a dragon, how do you know so much about dragons?”
He turned and smiled at her but it quickly faded. “I was you
ng when this all happened, and for all I knew she was a dragon, so whenever I could, I read up on dragons. When I finally concluded she wasn’t a dragon but a vampire, well, I guess my fascination with the history and folklore of dragons had taken hold of me. I could never break my infatuation with the beast.”
She smiled.
He turned to her and anxiously said, “So now that you know all my dirty truths, are you horrified?”
“Well, what you experienced was horrifying. I see why you don’t like to talk about your past, but it doesn’t make me think any worse of you.”
“Really?” he said with relief. “In that case do you think we…you and I, might, you know…”
“Well, that depends,” she said.
“On what?” he asked.
“You.”
“Me? I don’t understand,” he said.
“I mean, will you at least try and talk to me if a topic comes up that makes you feel uncomfortable?”
“I can’t promise I won’t react, but I can certainly try to talk to you.”
“Good. Then yes. There could be something here worth exploring. Maybe we can even go on a date. Even without Tori and Nick.”
He smiled from ear to ear. “I’d really like that.”
“But you won’t have your bodyguard…” she joked, looking at Nick who watched her closely.
“He’s not MY bodyguard. I’m his,” Jackson responded.
“Sure, you are. After all, you need him to protect you from all your ‘Cougars,’” she jested.
He froze and his face went blank and pale and she thought he was going to pull away once more, when he growled, “You are so going to get it!”
Summer took off running and he quickly had her pinned to a nearby tree. His body pressed against her and then he lowered his head to hers and gave her a long, tender kiss, making her flush and tingle hot. He went in for another kiss when they both heard Tori.
“Guys, we have to get back to work.”
He pulled away, brushing her nose with his soft lips and said, “We definitely need a date without them.”
She laughed loudly when Tori strode up hand in hand with Nick. “What’s so funny?”
Summer and Jackson responded in stereo, “Nothing.”
*****
When Summer came home from work with Sully, she found Ms. Midnight on the garden bench with Hunter and Morti on his back on the crushed rock path, his full belly exposed to the sun, soaking up dying rays. He had tamed his fur with a good bath only missing a large tuft at the end of his tail.
Sully saw the relaxed cat as he sauntered to the bench and then lunged into action with great excitement. Before the rotund cat could react, Sully had him pinned with his paws and licking his white belly fur. Morti protested between unstoppable laughs since this licking was tickling him to no ends.
Hunter and Ms. Midnight had presumably spent the better part of the day together. They seemed incredibly relaxed with one another and exchanged laughs that Summer didn’t quite understand. Unnoticed by Summer, Hunter took a hint from Ms. Midnight and headed into the mansion, leaving Ms. Midnight and Summer alone in the garden.
“Sit, child. We have much to discuss,” Ms. Midnight said.
“We do?”
“Indeed, we do.”
Summer took a seat next to Ms. Midnight.
“I don’t see any easy way to say this so I’m going to throw it out there,” Ms. Midnight started.
Summer raised an eyebrow.
“You, my dear, are indeed a witch.”
“I don’t feel like a witch.”
“My dear, what do you think being a witch feels like?”
“I don’t know? Tingly, magical, like someone important,” Summer said.
“Well, I don’t know about tingly. I usually associate that with love, but the other two? You definitely are.”
“But I can’t perform any magic.”
“Not yet. You have to be taught to channel your magical powers and utilize them when needed. Haven’t you noticed strange things around you? Voices when no one is around, generating electricity with just a touch, and your aptitude for animals and plants alike?”
“I guess I’ve noticed some odd things, but it’s hard to determine what’s odd and what’s not with all I’ve seen this summer.”
“And why do you think so many odd things have happened to you and not to your friend?”
“I don’t know. Guess I’m just lucky?”
“Yes—and magical. Magic and the supernatural go hand in hand. Someone who is as magical as you are attracts other magic and anything else supernatural.”
“So you mean I’m the reason these things are happening?”
“To a certain degree—destiny plays its role too,” Ms. Midnight added.
“What am I supposed to do with this magic you say I have?”
“That is entirely up to you, but we hope you will choose to use it for good.”
“Who’s we?” Summer asked.
“Me. The BROOM. Morti.”
“Morti?”
“Yes. He is the RAT after all. It is his job to teach you the ins and outs of proper magic—spells, techniques, the alchemy of it. It can be quite complicated.”
“And that crabby cat is going to teach me?”
“Yes, and so much more.”
“Does he do this for all witches?”
“Oh my, no. Can you imagine how grumpy he’d be if he had to do that?” Ms. Midnight said with a chuckle. “No. He is at YOUR disposal.”
“Why me?”
“You’re special. You, my dear, are from the most powerful witch family there ever was. Add to that you are of the seventh generation of seven originals of the family.”
“I don’t understand. I don’t have any family.”
“I know that’s what you think and we had to make it seem that way to protect you.”
“Protect me? Protect me from what? And who is this ‘we’?”
“The ‘we’ is me, Morti and the BROOM, among others who acknowledge the danger. We had to protect you from the Macabre family or they would have killed you long ago.”
“Why would they kill me?”
“Because you are the only one they consider a threat. You are the only one who can defeat them.”
“Me? You have definitely got the wrong person, Ms. Midnight. I don’t even know how to use magic. How can I be a danger?”
“I told you. You are the seventh generation of the seven original witches of the family. With each generation the power increases until it peaks at the seventh generation.”
“How do you know so much about my family?” Summer asked.
“Oh, I know everything about your family, because we’re related. I’m your great aunt—your grandmother’s sister.”
“And where is my grandmother? My parents? All this family I supposedly have?” Summer said feeling a rise of anger within her.
Ms. Midnight’s face showed a sudden sadness and despair when she answered, “Mostly dead, I’m afraid. It was the hardest decision I ever made, hiding you away from everyone. I knew it would be hard on you not having any family, but it was necessary to keep you alive. I’ve watched over you from a distance and made sure you had everything you needed.”
“But I didn’t have a family,” Summer said almost in tears.
“I know. I wish I could have provided that for you too, but I could not see any other way to protect you. If I had taken you in to live with me, they would have come for you.”
“You could have protected me,” Summer said.
“No, dear, I couldn’t. I would have been no match for them. There are too many of them. I couldn’t have fought them off on my own. As it is, they’ve watched me over the years. They’re always watching—always scheming—always looking for a new way to attain more power.”
“Couldn’t this BROOM group have helped you?”
“Oh, they did, dear. Without them, the ruse of your death years ago would have never been believed. Their
orchestration of your disappearance is the reason you’re still here, but I’m afraid the dragon’s mention of another magical person living on this estate will bring the Macabres sniffing around. Once that happens, your identity will be impossible to hide. That is why we need to start your training right away.
“The biggest flaw in our plan in keeping you hidden is that we couldn’t train you. Magic leaves a mark. The more you use it the stronger you get, and the bigger the mark you leave. It is our hope to get you trained in defending yourself before they come looking for you.”
Summer was overwhelmed. With every bit of good news came its counterpart—the bad news. She had a family after all, but most of them were dead. She supposedly had magical powers, yet if she didn’t learn to use them as soon as possible from a crabby RAT cat, she’d be dead before she got to use them. How was anyone in their right mind supposed to deal with all this?
*****
The next few days proved to be a challenge in every sense of the word. Just the concept of learning magic from a cat was inconceivable, but the fact this was an arrogant and cantankerous witch was downright torture. Oh sure, she learned basics from him and even a spell to light the flame of a candle, but she didn’t know how she was going to learn all she needed to know to save the people around her she’d grown to love, let alone herself.
Hunter also contributed to the magical training. Being a magical creature himself, he was like her professor of Thaumaturgy History. Having lived so long and having seen all that he had, he had much to relay to her. A witch raised by witches would have learned much of the old stories, beginnings, and histories of magic, but she didn’t have this background so she was starting from scratch and it was very frustrating.
The history was incredibly interesting to Summer and she did look forward to lessens with Hunter, but it was all so much to take in and the pressure weighed on her.
Ms. Midnight taught Summer the fundamentals of herbology, for medicinal purposes, potions, tinctures and salves. Though she gave long periods of intelligible tutorial, she did sometimes wander away from the direction of the topic. Luckily, irritability was a precursor to these moments, so Summer quickly learned when this happened it was time to let her be for a while.
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