“Is everyone okay?” the instructor asked. General assent rose from the room and Jade could only be relived that no one was hurt. She was also relieved that no one seemed to be blaming her. Yet.
“God, that’s so weird! What the hell happened?” Callie asked.
Henri sniffed the air and Jade froze like a wild rabbit spotted by a predator. “Do you smell that?”
This was it, she was screwed.
Callie sniffed too. “Is that grapefruit? Who’s magic is that?” Callie looked around. All the students were doing the same thing - slightly sniffing the air and looking around in bewilderment.
Jade cautiously sniffed the air too. It was grapefruit. Grapefruit and cinnamon. She didn’t think she’d smelled that before.
Henri shrugged. “I don’t know anyone whose magic smells like that. You?”
Callie shook her head and when they both looked at Jade, she dumbly shook hers too. Andrea was asking everyone to calmly leave, noting that they could pick up a voucher for a free class at the front. She’d also report the incident to Counter-Magic and asked that the students not discuss the incident amongst themselves until they called in their details. It was the Counter-Magic standard line - don’t mix up your details by discussing with others until you’ve reported the incident. Hearing the familiar words calmed Jade enough to push to her feet, leaving her rented mat on the floor and stumbling after Callie and Henri.
CHAPTER FOUR
Another night. Another nightmare. If she slept and didn’t have one, Jade would be suspicious and edgy, she supposed. After coming home from yoga and resolutely avoiding any reflective surfaces, she killed time streaming vids on her laptop before finally heading up to bed, feeling dread pool in her stomach with each step. Bruce trotted along after her, sniffing the air. His tail made a whirring sound as he swished it back and forth. He crawled under the bed at first, but after a minute or so, popped back out and then pushed the closet door open with his snout. He had a little nest in there with a pillowcase, a throw pillow from the sofa and Jade’s caffeine t-shirt - one of her favorites. She guessed it was more his now.
She wondered how long it would take her to fall asleep, but she refused to keep checking the clock. All she knew was that she was back in the Preserve, the sparrow from her previous dream perched on her shoulder. It had a high-pitched chirp, but Jade thought all birds might. It wasn’t like she was any kind of expert. She heard a high-pitched sound, it sounded like a chirp, it must be a bird sound. That was the extent of her knowledge.
The sparrow’s feet were sharp on Jade’s skin, digging into the flesh of her shoulder. With how small the sparrow was, Jade couldn’t see it out of the corner of her eye, but if she turned her head a little, she could catch a glimpse of it. If she turned her head too far to see it better, she felt dizzy and had to look straight ahead again.
Up ahead of her were the dock and the lake. As she walked toward them, she looked down and saw her bare feet. Where were her shoes? What was she doing outside without shoes? Even though she knew it was a dream, the lack of footwear bothered her. It was so impractical.
Other than the sparrow on her shoulder, Jade didn’t hear any other sounds from the forest. No crunching of leaves as squirrels ran, no other birds talking, no rustle of branches. She dragged her hand across the rough bark of one of the trees she passed and then pulled her hand back sharply when pain bloomed across two of her fingers.
Blood. It blossomed bright red against her pale skin, like water over the petals of a delicate flower. As she turned her hand, a few fat drops ran down her fingers, then her palm and started crossing her wrist. She had to look away then. Blood on her hands, on her wrists always made her think of the day Lily left. But that wasn’t what this dream was. These were only the cuts from the mirror, when she thought she saw Lily. Nothing more, nothing less. She didn’t have any other wounds on her. Still, she couldn’t stop herself from turning her hands over, palms up and checking her arms. No wounds, just smooth skin with the hint of blue-green veins underneath.
Her fingers throbbed in time with her heartbeat and she found herself pausing in her walk toward the lake, distracted by the pulse. One-two. One-two. One-two.
The sparrow dug its feet into her shoulder and she winced. She started moving forward again.
This time on the dock, her body knew how to sway along with the slight movement. Keeping her balance felt easier than before. She walked to the end and then curled her toes over the edge, feeling the rough, worn wood under her feet. It was foolish of her to be standing so close. She couldn’t swim.
In the first dream she’d had of Lily at the lake, back when Jade had been worried about Dex, Lily had been underwater, her eyes closed, her arms reaching up, like a ghostly stalagmite stretching for the surface. Jade stared at the spot where Lily had been before, but there was nothing out there now. Just the flat surface of the cold water. It reflected back broken fragments of the sky and the surrounding trees - the picture jumbled and odd.
The sparrow nibbled at her neck and Jade raised a hand to flick it off or push it away. It unset her balance and she felt herself falling toward the water. Time slowed in the impossible way it can in dreams and she was able to turn, putting her back to the water. She was out of step with time, tipping backward so slowly that it seemed she would have forever to dread and fear hitting the water. She could see a shape on the dock. It must have been standing behind her - a cloaked figure, the face hidden by black folds, like a grim reaper. It stood still and solemn, neither helping nor hindering. Behind that figure was Lily - her eyes, so green, so wide. She was like Jade - moving so slowly she was nearly frozen. Her hair moving around her face like lazy smoke. Her hand stretched out toward Jade, as though she wanted to stop her from falling. Her mouth was open, mid-shout, but there was no sound. Nothing from the forest, nothing from the cloaked figure, nothing from Jade herself.
Except her heart. One-two. One-two. One-two. An absurd number of beats in her ear as she fell backward, the water moving up to meet her.
Jade woke up, again not in her bedroom, but in the kitchen, halfway to the back door. Her heart stuttered in surprise and she shook her head to clear it. Feeling wetness on her fingers she looked down. Tiny red droplets of blood were dripping from her bandage-free fingers, leaving small crimson spots on the kitchen linoleum. The time on the microwave said two in the morning - way too early for her to be up and only about an hour or so after she’d gone to bed. She looked slowly around, hoping a reason for her being in the kitchen would come to her. None did.
Mechanically, she went through the motions of cleaning up the blood she trailed on the floor, following little bloody droplets all the way out of the kitchen, through the living room and up the stairs to her bedroom. Thank God she didn’t have carpet. What a disaster. It was easier to focus on the mess that could have been instead of thinking about her dream.
Back in her room, she found her old bandages by the side of the bed and could only guess that she’d ripped them off in her sleep. A quick peek in the closet showed Bruce sleeping like the dead - his belly rising and falling heavily. It made her smile. It was relaxing to watch him sleep.
It took a few more minutes to rebandage her fingers and then she was back in her room. She paused just as she was about to get into bed and instead, grabbed one of her pillows and a blanket. Heading back to the closet, she poked her head in.
“Scooch over, Bruce. Stop hogging all the space.”
#
Jade was touched when both Callie and Daniel offered up their cars to drive Bruce to the Coven. Since Daniel already did Jade a couple of solids a week by dropping her off after their run and in fact, would have to turn around after dropping her off in the morning just to come back and get her and Bruce an hour later, Jade accepted Callie’s offer of a ride.
Thankfully, that morning’s run had been free from any dry-heaving moments, although Jade did feel like death warmed over. Having her sleep interrupted was taking its toll. Daniel and Jade too
k another pathway for their jog, one that Jade suggested. It hugged close to the perimeter of the Preserve instead of travelling deeper into the forest. While it kept Jade from getting sick, it didn’t hide the fact that she was struggling to keep up with Daniel. They were usually evenly paced, but Jade felt like she was running through mud. Daniel slowed his pace down and Jade barely had enough oxygen to thank him for it. He’d dropped her off with a careful look, promising to see her at work.
Back at her cottage, Jade showered, changed and then asked Bruce if he wanted to go take a ride with Callie to the Coven. Jade would swear on a stack of bibles Bruce actually preened at the question. He did a little butt-shimmy-wiggle and then bounded toward the foyer. Jade laughed at his exuberance.
“We still have to wait for Callie to arrive, buddy.”
Bruce’s head drooped and he planted his butt in the foyer while Jade made her way to the kitchen. Bruce seemed genuinely excited to go to the Coven. Why, Jade wasn’t sure. He was just going to meet people. Unless he was excited about that. Which would honestly be surprising because in other ways, he was a lot like Jade.
Jade was halfway through her morning coffee when Bruce decided to abandon his vigil in the foyer and come into the kitchen. He whacked Jade’s chair with his tail, causing her to spill coffee on her (thankfully) black pants.
“Nice.” She looked around for a napkin, but then decided a few drops of coffee on black slacks wouldn’t show anyway. Bruce hit her leg again, this time with his flank.
“What’s up? If this is about more bacon I told you that was a special treat. We can’t have that all the time. It’s bad for our hips.”
He presented his neck to her, like he had before, tipping his head off to the side and bluntly showing her the skin under his chin. Frowning, Jade set her cup down and scooted her chair forward, bending over to cradle his face and tip his head up further. The dry, scaly patch was worse - spreading out across his neck. She touched it carefully and he blinked quickly a few times.
“Does it hurt now?” she asked, keeping her voice low. His tongue came out quickly, touching her wrist. “Hmm. I think that means yes.” She looked it over again and then sat back in her chair. “Okay, wait right here.”
She ran upstairs and came back with a small travel sized container of aloe vera and vitamin E cream. She squirted a bit on her fingertips (avoiding her bandages) and held them out for Bruce to sniff.
“Okay if I put some of this on?”
His snout came closer, wiggling slightly as he sniffed the cream. She could almost see him considering it.
“I’ll ask around and see if I can make a witchy-type one, but I’m afraid until I do, this is the best I’ve got.”
He exhaled once sharply and then again presented his neck, which she took as permission. Jade carefully smoothed the cream into the scaly skin, trying to ensure even coverage, but not wanting to over-saturate the area. Bruce turned his head and Jade was able to get a better angle.
“There we go. Looking a bit better.”
Maybe this was all Bruce needed - for Jade to put some cream on him a couple times a day. She laughed unexpectedly. “I’m sorry, Bruce, but I gotta say, I never pictured this in my future when I joined a Coven.”
Bruce’s tongue flicked out at her once more before he turned his head sharply to the front door, moments before Jade did. She could feel Callie pressing up against her demon locks, stuck down by the street.
“Guess our ride’s here.”
Bruce bounded to the front door and wiggled his butt while he waited for Jade to get her shoes and coat on. As soon as she opened the door, he tore down the steps and pathway, heading directly for where Callie stood by her car.
“Sorry, couldn’t get any closer. I was about to text.”
“No worries. I should probably change the spell to let you through, but it’s been acting weird lately.”
Callie shrugged. “It’s not like I can’t text you. Or yell.”
Jade snorted. “I’m sure the neighbors will love that. Will you yell out ‘STELLA!’ like we’re in that play?”
“I’ll do my best Brando impression. All five-feet and two inches of me. By the way, I have treats!” Callie waved a box of donut holes proudly.
“Bruce, look! Treats for humans and lizards!”
Callie tossed one in the air and Bruce, in a surprising show of agility and speed, leapt up and caught it - his pink tongue flicking out and wrapping around the donut hole. He hopped into the back of Callie’s car, where he eagerly pushed his face in between the front seats and started nosing at the coffees in the cup holders. As Jade got in the car, she tapped him on his snout.
“Dude, I like you a lot, but that’s my coffee.”
Bruce turned his eyes on Callie and Jade wanted to laugh at the doe-eyed expression he was giving her. It was eerily akin to the same cow-eyed expression that Callie was capable of with her large brown eyes.
“Aw, he’s so cute! I should have brought him a small coffee too.”
“He doesn’t need coffee,” Jade protested, taking a sip of her own.
Callie snorted. “I don’t know, Jade. Familiars are supposed to be very much like their witches. With how much you love it, Bruce might need it to survive.” Her tone was light and teasing and Jade smiled at it.
By the time they were walking through the front doors of the Coven, Jade could already tell that Bruce was going to be a spectacle. Bruce trailed behind her - his loping, awkward gait making him waddle slightly. As they entered the Covenstead, Jade heard a chorus of sharp breaths and braced herself to protect or defend Bruce in case anyone was afraid of or antagonistic toward him. Instead, a witch Jade knew by sight but not by name immediately rushed over, hunkered down and met him eye-to-eye.
“Look at him! What a cutie!” the witch exclaimed, she reached out tentatively to pet Bruce’s head looking up at Jade, for permission or assurance, Jade wasn’t sure. Jade nodded once and Bruce flicked his tongue out at the other witch, making his ‘pffft’ sound.
The witch laughed a bit, smiling widely and then pet him on the head, marveling at the texture of his skin. “Oh, I didn’t know he’d be soft!”
Bruce, the traitor, was totally eating it up. His eyes slitted shut in bliss as he deigned to let some stranger pet him. After that, some kind of seal was broken and more witches came up. Jade and Callie couldn’t even get past the foyer of the Covenstead to make it to Henri’s reception desk - too many people had crowded into the limited space.
Jade thought at first Bruce’s popularity was due to the fact that familiars were so rare - no one had ever had much of a chance to meet one before. But, after watching the serpentine wiggle of Bruce’s long body as he preened under the attention, she realized he was a bit of a diva and was totally hamming it up.
When Jade usually walked in through the main doors of the Covenstead on her own, people turned all right, but it was more with sideways glances and hairy eyeballs. She’d never once been the subject of cooing and fawning. The forced smiles and greetings Jade got were a far cry from the ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing’ Bruce was inspiring.
“It’s nice that he’s so friendly,” Callie said, standing just off to Jade’s side. Callie flicked her pale, fine blonde hair over her shoulder in a wide fan and then bent down to give Bruce a pat on the head. Bruce gazed up at her adoringly. Callie probably solidified her position in Bruce’s little lizard heart with all the donut holes she fed him on the car ride over.
“What kind of lizard is he?” someone asked.
Jade shrugged, vaguely recognizing the witch from Supernatural Relations. “He doesn’t really match up to anything. I think the herpetologist figured he was closest to a bearded dragon, but he’s almost seventy pounds - way too big to actually be one.”
All that time spent lost in the sewer, feeding on magical bits and bobs, had probably done strange things to Bruce’s anatomy and growth. Nobody knew exactly what Bruce was or had been before he’d turned into what he was now.
&n
bsp; “He seems so tame!” someone else exclaimed.
“Yeah, he’s a prince,” Jade said dryly, watching as Bruce flapped his Elizabethan lizard collar, causing the small crowd of witches gathered around to startle as a group, and then surge in for a better look. Bruce preened and then flopped sideways, showing his pale yellow belly. One of the women reached out and patted his supple, sturdy belly soundly and Bruce flopped his tail with a loud thump on the marble floor.
“Oh my God, you’re such a sook,” Jade said lowly. She didn’t think anyone heard her but from the way Bruce rolled his eyes toward her, he totally did.
It didn’t escape Jade’s notice that while the Coven members had crowded the foyer, they were wholly focused on Bruce and ignoring Jade. Maybe not deliberately. Jade was the recipient of some small smiles and hesitant looks, but for the most part, people were more interested in her lizard than her.
There was a metaphor for her life in there somewhere; Jade just couldn’t figure it out.
One of the male witches who was crowding around Bruce reached out a hand and Jade saw he was too close to Bruce’s scaly spot.
“Wait-“
She only managed to get the one word out before he brushed his hand a little too roughly over Bruce’s sore spot. Bruce reared up, Elizabethan collar maxed out, and snapped at him with teeth. Everyone jumped back - well, everyone except Jade. The foyer had gone silent; the witches looked from Jade to Bruce with hesitant eyes.
“He’s got a sore patch there. Don’t touch it,” Jade said, crouching down next to Bruce. He leaned heavily against her. All seventy pounds. She had to put one of her legs awkwardly out to the side to take the weight. He seemed slightly embarrassed, whether by his sore patch or because he snapped and didn’t mean to, Jade wasn’t sure.
“What is it?” Callie asked, coming to kneel next to Jade, keeping a good distance from Bruce.
“I don’t know,” Jade answered truthfully. “I only noticed it recently. It just showed up. It’s getting bigger.” Jade turned from Callie to the witch Bruce had snapped at. “Sorry, I should have warned you guys.”
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