by Nina Perez
Over the weeks, neither Jack nor Violet had seen more than a few brief glimpses of Ms. Sweet, but their impression was that she was an elderly woman. Now, looking at her face, they could see that she was far from it. Her wide-set blue eyes, upturned nose, and pale unblemished skin suggested that she was no older than thirty.
“Yes, Ms. Sweet?” Dr. Tesla’s tense expression vanished and he gave her a warm smile.
“I’m done for the evening. Dinner is on the stove. Do you or the children require anything else?”
“Thank you, Ms. Sweet, but no. There will be nothing else.”
She smiled; a smile that spread across her whole face, reaching her eyes. Jack reconsidered – he’d be surprised if she were older than twenty-five. After she’d closed the door behind her, Dr. Tesla turned to Violet and Jack. “Yes, it’s something like a family meeting.”
“What did we do this time?”
Dr. Tesla gave Violet a wry smile. “Nothing that I’m aware of.” His face turned serious. “Remember when I asked your permission to have your parents’ bodies examined for signs that magic may have been behind their accident? Well, it seems that my suspicions were right.”
“What did they find?” Jack asked.
“Magic leaves… markers; signs that it has been used. Humans don’t know to look for it, so it goes unseen. We had witches perform tests to look for any magical remnants. They first found that a standard cloaking spell had been used. This meant we were on the right track. Someone had obviously used magic on your parents before their deaths. Next, they found what the spell was meant to hide: that there were traces of scopolamine in your parents’ blood.”
“What’s scopolamine?” Violet asked.
“It’s a drug that affects the nervous system. It’s commonly used as a sedative before anesthesia. When mixed with small amounts of morphine, which was also found, it produces a state known as twilight sleep. Before I go further, let me explain how most magic works. We cannot make something out of nothing. I cannot just wave my hand and make a rabbit appear out of a hat. Everything in magic derives from something real. Common household items, regular medicines, combined with the right spell and a person with the ability and skill to perform it: that’s magic.”
Dr. Tesla looked around the room, his eyes coming to rest on a small house plant near the window. He walked over to it, snapped off a leaf and placed it on the coffee table. He waved his right hand over the leaf. When he lifted his hand, the leaf had been replaced with a bright green caterpillar.
“What the…,” Jack said.
Violet smiled. This was their first exposure to magic that wasn’t violent or ugly. He’d said he was a warlock, but up until that point, Dr. Tesla had not done anything very… warlock-like. Their trip into virtual history always felt more like extreme technology than magic. Violet viewed Dr. Tesla in a whole new light.
He cupped the caterpillar in his hand, walked to the window, opened it, letting in a gush of cold wind, and released the caterpillar into the night. He returned to the sofa.
“That will be a leaf again by morning. So, you see, you have to start with something. Whoever gave your parents the scopolamine altered it the way I altered the plant. Then they cast the Somnotrance spell. It’s designed to give the person casting the spell complete control over their victim. Once the spell is activated, the victim is like a puppet. They’re moving and talking, but their actions aren’t their own. The spell caster has complete control. The affected person won’t remember anything they said or did while under the influence.”
“So, you think someone altered this drug using magic, poisoned our parents with it, and then cast a spell to control them?”
“Yes, Violet, and it would seem that they were both given the drug, but only your fathers were activated.”
“What do you mean by activated? “ Jack asked.
Dr. Tesla let out a deep breath. “It would appear that both of your parents were given the drug over a period of time. Weeks, maybe months. Most likely in their food. This was so that any one of them could be controlled at any time, but the night of the accident, the spell was cast with only your fathers as the focus.”
“Why them?” Violet asked.
Before Dr. Tesla could answer, Jack did. “Because they were driving.”
Dr. Tesla looked at Jack strangely and was about to speak when Violet said, “But we would have noticed. Wouldn’t they have noticed something?”
“You might have. They were most likely forgetful, confused, described as ‘out of it’ or ‘not all there.’ The longer the exposure, the worse those symptoms would have appeared.”
Violet remembered tapping into her father before her parents had left for their date and feeling nothing from him. The connection had worked, but he was emotionless on the inside. She couldn’t share this with Dr. Tesla, though.
Jack was also thinking of that last morning with his parents and how Mr. Morrow had forgotten the muffins sent by his mother’s boss. And there had been other, small, forgetful incidents in the weeks prior to his death. Jack had chalked it up to his father being stressed about finances. He told this to Dr. Tesla.
“That would make sense. The longer he was exposed to the drug, the more prominent those symptoms would have become.”
For weeks, Violet had avoided breaking down in front of either of them, but the visions she had in her head now were too awful. Tears pooled in her eyes. “Someone made our fathers cause the accident.”
“That’s what we believe happened, yes. Something bothered me about the police report, but I couldn’t place it till now. There was absolutely no sign of what could have caused the accident. It seemed like the cars had intentionally and inexplicably crashed into one another.” Dr. Tesla glanced quickly at both children, feeling insensitive for sharing something so graphic.
“And whoever did it, they’d been planning it, poisoning our parents for awhile.” Violet said.
Dr. Tesla sighed. “Yes, and that changes everything.”
Violet turned down dinner, citing a massive load of homework. Dr. Tesla knew he’d just dropped a bomb so he didn’t push. She went upstairs to her bedroom, reeling from the confirmation that someone had purposely poisoned and then murdered her parents. Ever since Dr. Tesla had asked permission to have their bodies examined, she and Jack knew there was a possibility that this is what he’d find, but hearing it so definitively with the names of poisons and spells made it real - too real.
This is what their lives had become, Violet thought – spells, poisons, and lies. Lots of lies, like the one she’d just told about where she’d been. She was perfectly safe at Ms. Harkins’, but she had no doubt that Dr. Tesla would have freaked. There was also the whole business of cutting out of school, but that’s not why she didn’t tell him where she’d really been. She was embarrassed to tell him, especially in front of Jack, that she’d been cradled in the arms of her next door neighbor, crying, again. She was embarrassed to tell him that sitting in Ms. Harkins’ living room, feet tucked under a blanket while being served warm cookies and hot cocoa made her feel normal when she hadn’t felt normal in years. That afternoon was the closest she would come to having a mother.
Violet was sure she had homework, but she hadn’t stayed in school long enough to be assigned any. She fell on top of the white comforter with its giant pink and lavender polka dots, staring at the ceiling. There was a knock at the door. Violet sat up, preparing to call out that she didn’t want to be bothered, but then there was another knock and Violet realized it had come from the window, not the door. Kalina was floating outside of her second story bedroom window.
Violet sprang off the bed and backed up to the bedroom door.
“Violet, let me in.”
Slowly, Violet walked to the window, flipped the latch and pushed the window open. She stepped backwards giving Kalina room to enter. Kalina floated to the window, sat on the sill and swung her legs inside, entering the bedroom.
“Thank you.”
Vi
olet hadn’t seen Kalina since finding out what she really was. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m your tutor, am I not? You’ve been back at school for weeks now. I hadn’t heard from you.”
“Are you serious?”
Kalina gave a casual shrug. “You have the soul of an evil witch, and I’m a vampire, but you still have to graduate from high school.”
Kalina stepped further into the room. Violet started to back up, but there was nowhere else to go and climbing on top of the desk seemed ridiculous so she held her ground.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Violet. If I wanted to hurt you, I could have done so long ago.” Kalina looked around the room curiously. She sat on the edge of Violet’s bed, her black leather ensemble out of place.
“Fair enough, but what do you call pretending to be my friend? Pretending to be human? You don’t think that hurt?”
“I never pretended to be your friend. In fact, I did just the opposite. I purposely avoided being your friend. It wasn’t a part of the assignment.”
“Assignment? That’s what I was, an assignment?”
“What is it that you want from me, Violet? I didn’t like lying, but I’ve been pretending to be something I’m not for centuries. You should know, if it was up to me, I still wouldn’t have told you. What would you have gotten out of knowing the truth? You had fifteen years of blissful ignorance. Fifteen years to not worry about big bad evils and tainted souls. You had a childhood and parents that loved you. Knowing the truth from the beginning would have robbed you of all of that.”
“And what does knowing the truth do for me now?”
“Now, you can prepare yourself for whatever’s to come. And it’s easier for The Trust to protect you now that you and Jack know everything.”
“And do we know everything?”
“If you think there’s more to know, I suggest you bring that up with Dr. Tesla. But as I said, no matter what I am or what’s inside of you, you still have to go to school and you still have to pass. I’ll let it go for tonight, but we will get together this week to go over your studies.”
“It doesn’t sound like I have much of a choice.” Violet rolled her eyes.
“You really don’t.”
Kalina rose and walked over to the window.
“And, Violet?”
“What?”
“Don’t ever use me to lie to Dr. Tesla again.”
And then she flew out of the window.
Hours after both children had finally gone to bed, Dr. Tesla sat in his office, the police report on the accident that had claimed the lives of the Morrows and Rosses open on his desk. He’d known something didn’t add up, but he’d been looking too hard. Driven by his guilt, he was unable to take a step back or even let it rest. The more he thought about someone out there being responsible for turning Jack’s and Violet’s lives upside down, the angrier he became and he couldn’t walk away.
Now, with the findings that the Somnotrance spell had been used on the couples, everything that had been staring him right in the face came into focus. Nothing about the accident had made sense. Until now. They knew the how, but the who was still a mystery. Ultimately, it didn’t matter who’d done it because Dr. Tesla would always feel responsible.
When The Trust had decided to place Lincoln’s and Ashlyn’s souls into Jack and Violet, he’d been skeptical. Their parents had already made great sacrifices for their cause. The Morrows’ lost their fathers because they were Hunters and Marianne Ross had put her career in jeopardy more times than he could count coming to the medical aid of their kind. He couldn’t ask any more of them and yet, he did. He’d had to. Too much was at stake and being the selfless people they were, both couples agreed.
He’d always felt it was his personal responsibility to make sure that both families had all that they needed, even though they’d been too full of pride to accept assistance. He’d moved to Rosemont years ago so it would be easier to watch the children and look for signs of trouble. He’d grown to care about them. His heart sank when the Morrows had contacted him seeking advice on how to help Jack. After his friend’s tragic accident, Jack had become despondent and disrespectful at school, and that was when he even bothered to show up.
During his sessions with Jack, Dr. Tesla couldn’t help but be reminded of another young man with endless potential who seemed to be receding into his own world: Lincoln Bale. As far as he could tell, though, Jack Morrow was going through nothing more than adolescent growing pains coupled with experiencing a tragedy.
Kalina’s reports pointed at much of the same with Violet. The powers of a witch and warlock emerged during adolescence, but can be accelerated after a trauma or significant change. Violet’s diagnosis of dyslexia certainly qualified as a major life event. It was his idea to approach the Rosses with the idea of having Kalina introduced into Violet’s life. They were hesitant at first. Not because they didn’t trust vampires or Dr. Tesla’s judgment, but because they’d managed to build a normal life for Violet for fifteen years. They didn’t want a disruption and they definitely didn’t want her placed in any danger. Dr. Tesla had assured them Violet would be safe with Kalina. He’d had no way of knowing, of course, that the real danger lay in wait for the parents.
He put the files back into their folder and placed it inside the top drawer of his desk. Then he spoke without looking up.
“You know, your open invitation doesn’t mean you don’t have to knock, Kalina.”
“I didn’t want to wake the children.”
Kalina stepped from the shadows and took a seat across from Dr. Tesla. Her face was flushed and covered with a glow that could be mistaken for perspiration, like she’d been running, except vampires didn’t sweat.
“You’ve been hunting. You’ve fed.”
“Yes, to both.”
“Good. We’ll need you at your best, I fear.”
“So, we’re sure this wasn’t some random coincidence?”
“Oh, we’re sure. What we don’t know is who’s behind it.”
“Well, the list of people that knew about the children is fairly small.”
“The members of The Trust, including myself.”
“And me.”
“And you, Kalina.”
If it were anyone else, Dr. Tesla might have considered the statement a challenge, but Kalina didn’t play games. She knew that she had his unwavering trust. Kalina was simply stating the facts, laying all the cards on the table.
“So, what’s our next move?” she asked.
“We quietly begin our own independent investigation. I don’t need to tell you the implications and all that’s at stake.”
“No. I’m well aware.”
“Hopefully, we can handle this swiftly and discreetly.”
Kalina watched Dr. Tesla remove his glasses and rub his eyes. She smiled briefly, but he caught it.
“What?”
“They say becoming a parent ages you. You’ve been one a few weeks and you look older and more tired than I’ve ever seen you.”
“I’m glad it amuses you.”
“One of the benefits of being a vampire,” Kalina waved her hands over her body from head to waist. “No matter how much I stress, I’ll always look like this.” She rose to leave.
“Are you going to use the door this time?”
“I’m thinking about it.” She considered him for a moment, deciding if it was a good time to add more to his plate. “You know Violet wasn’t with me today.”
“I know. Do you know where she was?”
“No, I expected her to be at school. For obvious reasons, I can’t watch her during the day.” She paused. “She’s keeping secrets.”
“They both are.”
Chapter Nine
There Was Something About Your Mother
Violet approached Dr. Tesla’s office door and found it ajar. Before she could knock, she saw him pull a book forward on one of the shelves. He didn’t completely remove it and when the book moved, the whole
wall slid away. She knocked and Dr. Tesla pushed the book back so that it was once again perfectly aligned with the others. This stopped the retreating wall. It reversed itself and slid back into place.
“Come in, Violet.”
She almost felt sorry for him. He seemed to have aged in the last few days since finding out about the spell used on her parents; the gray in his hair seemed brighter, the lines in his face deeper. Violet guessed she wasn’t the only one having trouble sleeping. She figured having to deal with her constant attitude didn’t help.
She handed him a folded piece of paper. “The school sent this home. You forgot to sign one of the permission slips for me to use the laptop.”
“Oh, right.” Dr. Tesla took the paper, distracted. He crossed over to his desk, leaned on it with one hand and signed the piece of paper with the other. When he didn’t immediately return it to her and instead looked at her thoughtfully, Violet sighed. “So, how are things going at school?”
Violet curbed her annoyance and tried to recall some of the pity she’d felt a few moments ago. He was trying so the least she could do was meet him halfway. “They’re okay. Everyone stares a lot less. So, that’s something.”
“I’m sorry. It can’t be easy.”
“Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault.” Violet looked at her feet, tracing the toe of her sneaker along the pattern on the area rug.
“Sometimes I feel like it is.”
Violet looked up, surprised. She could see an internal struggle play out across Dr. Tesla’s face. Finally, it seemed the sadness won out and his mouth set in a deep frown. And then, she got it. It wasn’t just stress or exhaustion that seemed to be eating away at Dr. Tesla. It was guilt. Violet had never stopped to think about how her parents’ death affected him. He took it a lot more personally than she’d known. He wasn’t just reacting as the head of The Trust losing four allies.