by T. S. Harvey
‘Two men, 6 feet tall, dark, possibly European. Get out of there now Sarah. Take the back door of the restaurant. If Kacey doesn’t want to go, then leave her. It is you they want. Now move!’
I went cold. I looked around quickly and could see the exit signs for the fire door at the back of the building. Kacey was still in the ladies’ room. What the hell would I say to her? I could hardly tell her the truth.
‘Kace, quickly, this way. Shhh!’ I said when she’d finally emerged.
‘One of the waiters just told me those two are in here every weekend. They pick girls up and then rob them when they’ve gotten them drunk. Come on, let’s make a run for it!’
I started to giggle as if it was some big fun thing to do. Kacey looked really annoyed, really disappointed, but she fell for it.
‘Bastards!’ she spat, as we turned our coat collars up against the cold. ‘Bastards. I really wanted to go a club.’
‘We’ll open the minibar and get hammered when we get back to the hotel. My dad’s picking up the tab; I’ll be grounded for a month when his credit card bill comes in but, what the hell!’
This seemed to cheer her up; we finally managed to hail a cab and made our way back to the hotel. While Kacey was raiding the miniatures, I called Erik.
‘What the hell is going on? What did Jared mean, they wanted me?’
‘They could smell me on you. It’s a Warlock thing.’
‘What? You mean they were Warlocks?’
‘Yes. They will have picked up my scent on you and having not recognized who it was they would have taken you somewhere to find out. Jared couldn’t tell whether they were loyal to The Council, so we had to get you out of there. I’m so sorry. It’s ruined your weekend.’
‘No it hasn’t. We’ve had a great time but I have missed you. I have to go, though. Kacey is on a mission to empty the minibar and it’s my duty to help her,’ I grinned.
‘So what’s it to be, Trump; Black Russian or Harvey Wallbanger?’
‘What a stupid question. Both, of course!’
By the time we boarded our plane the following day, my hangover was just starting to kick in. Thankfully, it was a six and a half hour flight and we managed to sleep most of the way back. Kacey had bought a couple of pairs of Ray-Bans with her, so we settled into our seats after take-off, got out the travel pillows, put on the glasses, and nodded straight off to sleep.
Chapter Thirty-five – Taking care of business
Erik
Yesterday had been a strange day. I’d spoken to Sarah early in the morning and everything was fine. She and Kacey had landed in New York the previous evening and, having gotten a good night’s sleep, were about to go shopping, something Kacey was supremely better at than Sarah. It didn’t matter, though. Sarah had promised to take Kacey with her after her father had given her the concert tickets for Christmas and, whilst I know she really wanted to spend the time with me, this would be good for her. If I’d been allowed too much control, I’d have smothered her with my attention and that’s not healthy, not really.
Jared and I decided to go into town. Dad had a case at work that was taking up more and more time at home and we figured getting out of the house and out of his way was the best thing right now. We had started off on what was a typical Saturday for Jared. He’d met a pretty redhead the previous week working at Smokey Joe’s, a wine bar on the outskirts of town, and decided that having chatted her up and found out she was single and up for it, he would pay her a visit before she’d left for work. I sat outside her apartment for over an hour waiting for him to finish. When he had, we then dropped one very happy waitress off at work and then made our way into town.
It was early afternoon when Jared’s cell rang. It was Mr Trent, Sarah’s father. As he spoke, I noticed Jared’s expression go from chilled to serious.
‘So what’s going on?’ I asked Jared, when he’d finished.
Jared explained that Mr Trent had ‘looked in’ on Sarah, which we took to mean he’d probably ghosted in, or something equally Warlock-like.
‘He said there was no way he would let her go that far without him doing something to check up on her. He reckons he sensed something about the people they were sat with.’
‘What does he mean?’
‘He’s not sure, he wants me to try.’
‘For fuck’s sake, it’s over fifteen hundred miles. You’re good, J, but you’re not that good.’
Jared looked at me and smiled.
‘Let’s see.’
We drove the car home and parked up in the lane – we didn’t want to involve Dad if we didn’t have to. He’d been concerned enough about my involvement with Sarah without worrying him about something we didn’t yet have information on. Jared sat eyes closed, motionless, barely breathing; only the subtle movement of his eyes under his lids gave away his conscious state.
‘I sense them. I don’t recognize them yet.’ he said, without moving, without opening his eyes.
As soon as he said this, I called Sarah, I had to know she was OK. She’d answered on the second ring and I felt a huge sense of relief, like a wave washing over me.
‘She’s OK, J. Her father must be mistaken.’
Jared didn’t answer, he remained totally still. Clearly, he believed he sensed something, so I said nothing. We sat there in silence for another ten minutes at least. Then, without warning, Jared turned to me ashen-faced. Saying nothing, he took out his phone and dialled.
‘Two men, 6 feet tall, dark, possibly European. Get out of there now, Sarah!’ he said coldly, when she answered.
I didn’t make a sound while he spoke to her, telling her what to do, where to go. When he’d finished, he went back into his trance-like state. Again I remained silent. My mind wasn’t silent, though. My mind was screaming for information – I needed to know what was happening, what he’d seen. It would be another thirty minutes before he turned to me again and smiled.
‘She’s fine, they’re fine.’
I breathed a sigh of relief that would have blown out a house fire.
‘You saw her, you saw her, from this distance?’
‘Yeah well, I’ve been practising,’ he grinned.
‘I should think you have. Do you know who they were?’
Jared just shook his head.
‘No. I think they might be Italian, but I’m not sure. What I am sure of, though, is I feel totally fucked now. Come on, let’s go in. No need to mention this to the old man, OK?’
Not telling Dad was fine by me. I didn’t want to give him any reason to start up about Sarah again.
The following day, I’d decided I would surprise Sarah and meet her when her plane landed. As I was getting ready to leave, Jared came into my room.
‘Think I’ll take a trip over to the airport with you.’
‘What? Why do you wanna do that?’ I laughed. ‘Not sweet on Kacey after yesterday’s vision are you?’
‘Well, I can think of worse sights to wake up with, E, but no – I just can’t get an uneasy feeling out of my head.’
‘OK. Think you’ve probably overdosed on adrenalin after yesterday, but if it makes you feel better then sure, let’s go.’
We’d been sat in the airport for about twenty minutes when details of her flight’s arrival came on the screen. I started to grin. She’d only been gone for 48 hours but I’d really missed her. I started to run through in my mind how she’d smell, how she’d feel, how she’d look. I got carried away a bit and didn’t notice the way Jared was staring into space.
‘What is it?’ I asked when I finally noticed.
‘Concentrate.’
I sat for a moment watching the people coming through Arrivals. Sarah would be there any minute. I tried to push her to the back of mind, so I could do as Jared had said, but that wasn’t easy for me to do. But then it hit me. Like an almighty thump to the chest. I stood upright, looking intently into the crowd of people.
‘Do you sense them?’ asked Jared.
I didn’t
answer; I just nodded, not taking my eyes from the crowd.
‘There, over by the pillar,’ I said quietly. I went to turn to Jared but then I saw her, laughing and joking with Kacey.
‘She’s not expecting us. Hold back, E, we’ll follow them, see what’s what.’
We held back until the girls were safely in a taxi. The two men we had seen by the pillar went to get into the one behind.
‘So, what’s happening then?’ said Jared, as he grabbed one by the arm.
‘We saw her first. We’ve tracked her from New York. She’s ours!’ he said sharply, as he tried to shake off Jared’s grip. They’d obviously sensed our presence as clearly as we had sensed theirs.
‘Yeah, well we’ve been tracking her for weeks, just waiting for the right time. Erik befriended the blonde, we were gonna offer them a lift until we sensed you. You’ve fucked this right up!’
I hadn’t said a word. Jared was a much better liar, far more convincing than I was. They’d have found me out right away.
The vocal, more confident, of the two men was called Enzo, the other was Stefano. As they argued about which of us had rights over Sarah, Enzo squared up to Jared. He was a couple of inches taller than Jared but not so broad. This wasn’t necessarily encouraging though. Even the smallest of Warlocks was capable of great strength and power and this fact wouldn’t have been lost on either of them.
‘I suggest we consider an alliance,’ Enzo said when he finally realised Jared wasn’t gonna back down.
Jared looked across at me.
‘You OK with this? You put a lot of time in with the blonde.’
‘I guess.’
I kept it short. What I really wanted to do was break their necks there and then, but I wasn’t that stupid. Even if I had the power to take them on, I doubted even Jared could wipe the memory of everyone present. No, I had to follow Jared’s lead. I knew him well enough to know he had a plan, and I trusted him well enough to follow it.
We shook hands on the deal and set off toward the parking lot. By the time we got there, you’d have thought Jared and Enzo had known each other for years. Discussing The Council, joking about how we’d found the Moirai when the Tracers had failed, and talking about how we were gonna get her to The Council.
‘There’s a shack just out of town, owned by friends of ours. They don’t use it at this time of year. It’ll be perfect,’ smiled Jared confidently. ‘We just need to work out how to lure her there. We can’t take the risk that there are others we aren’t aware of. We need to question her first.’
Enzo seemed to be genuinely impressed with Jared and nodded enthusiastically. It turned out that Enzo and his brother were both from a very distant line of Segans. They’d been made aware of the meeting at Lorcan’s but chose not to attend. They had no intention of following his suggestion of killing Sarah – they simply wanted to side with The Council, to earn favour. I wanted to Whisper to Jared to find out what he had in mind but I didn’t want to break his concentration. He needed to stay sharp, stay focused on what he was doing. I’d know soon enough how this was gonna pan out, so I stayed quiet and just waited.
We’d been driving for about an hour when I realised he was driving us home. When we arrived back, Dad was stood on the porch waiting for us.
‘I’m Logan,’ he said, holding his hand out to Enzo first. ‘Jared called ahead,’ he grinned.
‘Really? From where?’ asked Stefano.
This was the first thing he’d said – like me, he’d remained silent while his brother and mine did all the talking.
‘From the airport,’ smiled Jared arrogantly.
‘No way, you couldn’t Whisper from that distance,’ snarled Enzo.
‘You think? I bet you wouldn’t believe I could sense you all the way over in New York either.’
They started to look uneasy, uncomfortable. Warlocks have varying degrees of power and, at this point, we had no idea how much they had, but there were three of us. If they’d known Jared could sense them over fifteen hundred miles away, they would never have come back with us – it took a lot of power to do that.
Enzo laughed; clearly he didn’t believe a word Jared had said.
‘The blonde was in red, the brunette in blue. Oh, and for the record, my brother is dating the brunette.’
I knew this was my cue and I didn’t hesitate. I shot a look at Stefano, throwing him clear across the yard. I thought I’d been fast, until I realised Jared had already immobilised Enzo and had started to disintegrate him.
I remembered briefly the way Mr Trent had made short work of the Tracers. It had taken him under thirty seconds to deal with them both. That’s fast, really fast. I had Stefano under control; he still had his voice, but he couldn’t move. He screamed at Jared to release his brother, but Jared just kept right on. If I hadn’t realized it before I certainly realized it now; Mr Trent was more powerful than anyone we’d ever met – it took Jared more than ten minutes to finish Enzo off. Once he’d finished, he turned his attention to Stefano.
‘Go inside, E, I’ll take care of him.’
‘No, you’re exhausted,’ I argued.
I was right; using that much power had drained him.
I turned to Stefano, still pleading for us to let him go, and I set to work. As I concentrated, I could feel the power surging through my body. I remembered the conversations in the car on the way home, where his brother had discussed handing Sarah over to The Council. This made me angry, made me want to tear him apart. The thought of anyone hurting her would keep me strong enough to do this.
It was a good thing we had no close neighbours – his screams were agonized. I felt the Warlock in me taking over. I fought to regain control but I knew I was failing. The strongest Warlocks are those that remain in control; those who control their power, not those whose power controls them. I struggled to concentrate; my mind kept wandering back to Sarah, I hadn’t noticed Dad was calling to me.
‘Erik, I’ll take over. You’re gonna be here all day at this rate. I want them to suffer as much as you do but you’ve been at it nearly an hour. That’s enough.’
He touched me calmly on the shoulder. As he did so, I released my grip on Stefano and stepped back. It took Dad under three minutes to finish things. I felt disappointed that I hadn’t dealt with him myself but I was relieved that it was all over.
‘Come on, let’s get you inside. You need to rest,’ said Dad quietly.
I knew he was right. I desperately wanted to call Sarah, but was in no state to go round there. It wasn’t just the exhaustion, it was the aggression. You can’t build up and release that much violence and then just carry on like nothing happened. You need to come down. I’d felt like this only once before; New Year’s Eve. It took far less energy to deal with the attackers that night, but it had taken the whole of the journey home to come back down. I’d call her tomorrow but for now, I just needed to sleep.
Chapter Thirty-six – The Stranger
Erik
The next couple of months went by in a blissful haze – well, almost. I’d have spent every waking moment with Sarah if I could, but keeping my hands off her was getting harder and harder. In the end, I tried to organize as many of our dates where others would be around or doing tiring activities to take her mind off trying to get us back into bed. It was as hard for her as it was for me; I knew I couldn’t hold off the inevitable forever.
‘We should go away for Spring break,’ she suggested one day on the way home from school.
‘Nah, it’d be too expensive. We can still spend time together at home.’
I tried to sound like it was just the money, but I knew she’d seen through me.
‘Admit it, Erik. You just don’t want to be on your own with me. Am I so boring you have to have other people around to keep you interested?’
‘What?’ I laughed. ‘You’re kidding me right? I don’t ever need to be with anyone else but you, you must know that.’
‘Well, it doesn’t feel like it. We never get any a
lone time these days.’
She looked really sad and it broke my heart that I was the reason for her sadness.
‘OK, well what about if we just go for the night? Would that be OK?’
‘Really?’ she said, more upbeat than she had been.
‘Yeah sure, I’ll sort it.’
We spent the rest of the bus journey talking about where we might go and how we would get there. She was much happier now and her being happy made me happy. How I was gonna cope with being totally alone with her around the clock, though, was another matter.
A week later and we were heading off toward Lake Arrowhead Park. I figured sleeping in a tent and being out in all that fresh air might be the best way to ensure we didn’t get carried away.
‘I can’t believe you thought camping was the best option, Erik!’ she grinned, as we set the tent up.
‘Yeah, well, it’s cheaper than a hotel and this way I get you all to myself. That was what you wanted, wasn’t it?’
She didn’t respond but the smile that filled her face spoke volumes.
Once we’d set up we decided to take a walk.
‘Well, let’s not take the same route I did with Kacey – wouldn’t want to tempt fate!’
Her laughter was so warm; she was such an easy person to be around, such an easy person to love. She might have possessed power beyond my imagination but she didn’t know that and I hoped it would always stay that way. It wasn’t always easy to keep her safe, to keep her secret but being with her was easier than breathing. I couldn’t imagine my life without her. Killing Enzo and Stefano wasn’t something I’d have chosen to do, but I would do it again without hesitation to protect her. If Jared hadn’t been with me on New Year’s Eve, I have no doubt I’d have killed Enders and her attackers, and I wouldn’t have had any remorse. I’m not a bad person, I care about people. I don’t enjoy confrontation, but the Warlock in me is like a separate entity to the ‘me’ that existed most days. It’s not that I cut off emotions, it’s just that I rationalize things that are done as a Warlock that I probably couldn’t rationalize if I’d done them as a normal seventeen-year-old boy.