Chasing Shadows

by Rebbeca Stoddard

  Chapter 10

  We had heard all they had to say, which took three hours. I had met more gods and goddesses then I had ever thought I would. Strangely enough, I felt like Zeus liked me in a fatherly way. Apollo and Artemis were still shocked that I had talked to them the way I did. And Aphrodite liked my relationship with Sebastian. She told me that it made her happy to see a love like ours. By the time we had finished talking and listening to compliments and hopes from various deities, it was almost midnight. My body felt exhausted and heavy, and my eyelids wanted to close and not open for a long time. Sebastian led me to the car and placed me inside gently. He sped to the driver’s side and started the car. The night had taken a toll on my energy. I curled into myself as the car began to heat up. Yet as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t sleep. I had to take stock of all the information that had been revealed to us.

  Athena spoke after Zeus. She spoke of battle strategies for protecting us from outside influences, and by outside influences she meant the u da yv la dv and other gods who might be against us. In case of emergency, she would place troops within five feet of us at all times so they could protect us from an attack. However not everyone thought it was absolutely necessary, because if the place we needed to be was sacred, they couldn’t cross those grounds. But Zeus wanted us to be prepared for every possible angle. Demeter spoke next. She told us how she would keep us nourished and energized throughout the process. I was definitely thankful for that. There was no telling how tired I would get without any food or water in my system.

  Hermes and Poseidon described how they would make traveling easier. Poseidon would calm the seas and any other water we had to cross to get to our destination. While he kept everything calm, Hermes would drive any type of transportation we needed, whether it was a boat, plane, or car. There was no need to know how he would provide the transportation, just that it would be readily available when we needed it. Again, I was thankful for the help they would provide. However, knowing what I had read about Hermes in Greek mythology made me worry about his mischievous behaviors. But Zeus trusted him, which meant he was loyal or wasn’t evilly mischievous.

  There were only four more gods and goddesses who needed to speak, and the next two were Aphrodite and Hera. I knew Aphrodite would be involved with this, but I had no idea who Hera was or what she was goddess over. Since Aphrodite and I had already met, she went straight into her part. She was the goddess of love and beauty, so her job in all of this was to make sure we were so into our love that we wouldn’t want to stop, at least not until the blood rite was over. Her power would allow us to continue even when we were exhausted and tired. Hera was the goddess of marriage; her job was to get us through marriage in the supernatural world. Unfortunately, that was as far as she went.

  The last two were the bickering siblings, Apollo and Artemis. Neither would look me in the eyes, ashamed of what had happened earlier, I assumed. They both played another important part in the blood rite and helping it succeed. Apollo would heal us when we felt like we could go no longer. But he played an even bigger part than that. When we arrived at the spot, he was the one who would tell us the words to recite before beginning. Without the words, we wouldn’t be able to get to the end of the rite and we would surely die. His sister’s part wasn’t as big as his, which made her a little put out. She would keep us hidden from anyone who might happen upon us, and she would change the wilderness around us wherever we needed so we could arrive there safely. Even though she was upset about how insignificant her part may have felt, I appreciated what she was going to do. It was important that other people couldn’t see us and that she would allow us to get there so much more safely.

  Each god and goddess played such an important role in the blood rite. I had no doubt in my mind that we would be safe and would survive it if we decided to do it. Part of me thought that Sebastian thought the same thing, but his eyes didn’t give anything away. We were almost to my house when Sebastian asked me something. I didn’t hear him until he asked it again. “What did Zeus want to talk to you about?”

  “Oh, he wanted to tell me that we should think about it and do whatever we needed to do to be sure about the blood rite. And he told me to contact him immediately if we thought something was off or not quite right.” I shrugged it off.

  “How are you supposed to contact him right away?” he asked.

  “This weird chant he wrote down for me. He said the words would come naturally, so not to worry about how to pronounce them.” I looked away. I didn’t want to tell him that I had asked about Clamora. Zeus had told me that she had done a fantastic job teaching me, but her work was done. No matter what I did or how hard I tried, she would not survive. She was supposed to go. He did say that I could allow her to stay for a little while longer, but there were certain things I needed to do.

  “You were talking to him a lot longer than that, AubrieAnna.” He glared at the road.

  “I wanted to know how to save Clamora, or if I could.” I looked down at my hands and started picking at my fingernails.

  “Can you?” Sebastian whispered.

  “He said that I could only save her for a little while longer, that she wasn’t supposed to stay here anymore. But I have the list of items and directions I need to do it,” I answered hopefully.

  “Then I suppose we should get them first thing in the morning.” He smiled softly at me, a thank you in his eyes.

  We stayed silent for the rest of the ride. I looked out the window and watched as we turned onto the private driveway toward my house. The closer we got to the house, the more I started to feel uneasy. There was no way that something was happening again. At least I hoped nothing was happening. My house came into view along with Langdon standing on the front porch. Fury crept through my entire body. How dare he even think that he could do this? Who did he honestly think he was? I began shaking as my anger bubbled over. Sebastian was squeezing the steering wheel before he reached over and touched my shoulder. He whispered something in my ear, but I couldn’t hear it. My body was already reacting to Langdon being there. Without waiting, I jumped out of the car and walked purposefully toward him. Sebastian had already screeched to a halt behind me. Nothing in my life had prepared me for what I was about to do. I didn’t even know what I was doing until my hand cocked back and swung with full force toward his face. Langdon’s head snapped backwards as he reeled from the force of my punch. A loud crack broke the silent night around us and blood poured out of his nose. Sebastian reached my side and Langdon glared with hate-filled eyes.

  “You little bitch!” he screamed as he pinched his nose to try to stop the bleeding.

  “Oh,” I scoffed. “I’m the bitch? You came to my doorstep after you attacked someone that I cared about. You are the biggest—”

  “What is going on out here?” My father opened the door and stopped as soon as he saw Langdon bleeding from his nose and me squaring off with him.

  “This arrogant piece of—”

  “AubrieAnna!” My dad cut me off before I could continue. “Langdon, you need to leave the property before I let my daughter finish what she started with you.”

  “This isn’t over,” he forced out between gritted teeth before heeding my dad’s warning.

  We all watched Langdon disappear down the road and away from the house and property. My dad stared at me and pulled Sebastian and me in the house. I knew it was coming before he could even get the words out. His face was turning red and a vein began to bulge on his forehead. All I could do was watch him and wait for him to blow. “What the hell was he doing here?” he stammered out instead, surprising me and Sebastian.

  “I don’t know, Dad,” I answered honestly.

  “Well, good job on breaking his nose. He deserves it.” My dad smiled a little.

  “Who broke whose nose?” my mom questioned.

  “I broke Langdon’s nose . . . ” I stared at the ground while she stared at me.

  She sighed and shook her head before turning around and walk
ing away. But just as she reached the entrance to the kitchen, she looked back at me and said, “AubrieAnna, we are going dress shopping tomorrow afternoon. So be ready to go at noon.” Then she continued on her path.

  I groaned and started toward the stairs. Every muscle and bone in my body was tired and achy. All I wanted was sleep, a lot of sleep. But I had to wake up early to go with Sebastian to get supplies from the Wiccan shop for the ritual to help Clamora. My dad told me goodnight as I headed toward my room. Too tired to even care, I took my pants off and crawled into bed. There would be no shower for me, only sleep for as long as I could. The second my head hit the pillow my eyes shut, and they didn’t open again for eight hours.

  The sun peeked through my curtains and warmed my face. Still exhausted, I groaned and rolled over. I shoved my face under my pillow and tried to fall back to sleep. Unfortunately, Sebastian was standing in my room and prodding me to wake up and shake a leg. Every part of me wanted to stay in bed for the rest of the day, but I knew there were things I needed to do. With more groans of protest I climbed out of bed and walked the few feet to my bathroom. Wiping sleep from my eyes, I started my morning routine: shower, get dressed, put on my makeup, and do my hair. I stuck with being comfy with an outfit that would be easy to change out of for dress shopping later, black leggings and a baggy gray sweater with black lace on the back and shoulders. Not wanting to fight with my hair to make it perfect, I threw it into a messy bun on top of my head with a big pink bow in the back, and I kept my makeup fairly simple with only foundation and mascara. After I finished getting ready, it was about ten in the morning and we needed to hurry to get our supplies then do the ritual before I had to be back home.

  Once we were on 99E heading toward Brooks, I pulled out the list of supplies that we needed for the ritual. There were some strange items on it that I wasn’t sure the shop was going to have. Sebastian hadn’t asked what was written down, and he didn’t seem to worry about it either. That made me have faith that no matter what we needed, we would find. When I looked out the window to see how close we were, we had already left Woodburn and were almost in Gervais. Concerned with how fast Sebastian was driving, I looked over at his speedometer. The second I saw how fast he was going, I wished I hadn’t looked. Sebastian was going at least eighty miles per hour. All of a sudden, really loud beeps came out of nowhere and immediately he slowed down to the speed limit. A cop was sitting in his car a few hundred feet away, using a radar gun to check people’s speeds. It took me a minute to realize that Sebastian had a radar or police detector. I couldn’t help but smile at that fact.

  A few more minutes passed and we were finally in Brooks and pulling up to the shop. Thankfully, it was open. Hopping out of the car, I hurried inside to get the supplies so we could be on our way. A bell signaled that we had entered, and Arina poked her head out from a back room. She smiled and waved before telling us if we needed help to let her know. I wasn’t absolutely sure what some of the items looked like, but I assumed they would be labeled or Sebastian would know what they were. We scanned the shelves and aisles to find what we needed. White and red candles, lavender, sage, rosemary, thyme smudge sticks, a luna moth, a bumblebee, a white oak stick, and a black rose were all the items we needed. We had a hard time finding the moth and white oak stick. After scouring the cluttered shelves, I went in search of Arina. The seer was standing behind the counter and humming to herself while she signed papers. I caught her attention with a small cough, and she smiled when she looked up at me. “Uh, we need two things that we can’t find on any of the shelves. Maybe you know where they are or where we could find them?” I asked her.

  “Ah, yes. I have the luna moth and white oak in the back. Couldn’t let any of the Wiccans who come in here see them or else they would snatch them right up.” Arina smiled and hurried to the back to grab the items. “Here you go, dear. Did you find the rest of what you needed?”

  “Yeah, we did. Thank you. Can I ask you a question?” I hesitantly asked her.

  “Of course you can.” She beamed.

  “How did you know what I needed without me asking? I mean, I know that you’re a seer and have visions and stuff, but did you have one about us needing these items?” I stammered.

  “Well, what you are about to do is very important. The gods need me to help you with items that you may need, seeing as not too many other shops have the white oak or luna moth. They are pretty rare. And I carry rare. For cheap, too, I might add.” She started ringing up the items. “Oh, back on track. Anyway, the ritual you are about to perform today is going to help everyone in the long run. You two still need Clamora’s guidance, at least for a little longer. So that’s why I saw the white oak and moth and then you two needing them. I hope that answers your question.”

  I nodded.

  “Well, if this is it, your total is eighty-five dollars and ninety-five cents.”

  Sebastian nodded and swiped his card to pay for the purchase. As soon as the transaction went through, she finished wrapping and bagging our purchases. We collected the bags and turned to walk away when the soft burst of a breeze fluttered throughout the shop and electricity crackled through the air. I turned to look at Arina just in time to see her eyes go from brown to white. Her voice changed to a deep tone, just like the last time we were here.

  “The ritual will work, but you must bind it in blood. He forgot to tell you the most important part to ensure her survival. Smear the blood of the hybrid supernatural and the blood of the vampire on each item. She will live longer that way. Good luck.” Arina’s head dropped down and everything returned to normal. With one last smile and wave goodbye from her, we walked out the door.

  “I don’t think I will ever get used to seeing that,” I said with a shiver.

  “I haven’t. Even after witnessing it so many times,” Sebastian replied.

  “How many times have you seen a seer do that?” I asked.

  “A few too many.” His eyes went tight, and I knew that was the last he would speak on the matter.

  We climbed into the car and went off to Clamora’s house. After a very quick twenty minutes, we parked in the lot and went into the building. Just as we entered and turned toward Clamora’s casting room, we saw Luke carrying a bag and hurrying out of the warehouse. Sebastian reached for him and slammed him against the wall so hard that I thought I heard the foundation creak. I was about to ask Sebastian what was wrong, but then I remembered that Aphrodite told us Luke was going to betray Clamora. What if he had already betrayed her and was moving on to betray his creator? I shook my head to get rid of the path my thoughts were going down. Before I could say anything or ask Sebastian if that’s why he was so pissed, he growled at Luke, who just stared down at the ground, ashamed. That said it all.

  “Why?” I whispered.

  “Because I had to, or else they were going to do worse than what they already did.” Luke continued to stare at the floor.

  “What did you tell them?” Sebastian growled through his teeth.

  “Not everything. I promise.” Luke squirmed uneasily.

  “What did you tell them, Luke?” I pressed.

  “They wanted to know what you were up to and how you were so strong you could do so much damage to the group that was sent to scare you. So I told them that you were a lot stronger than anyone had anticipated. Then they started questioning me about you and Sebastian.” My skin crawled at his response.

  “What did they ask about us?” I asked.

  “They asked if there was any way to separate you and get one of you to cause a weak spot.” It hit me: They wanted to use us against each other so they could win.

  “What did you tell them?”

  He shook his head.

  “What did you tell them, Luke?” I was getting frustrated now.

  “I . . . I told them about your family, your brother,” he stammered.

  “Sebastian, let him go.” I stared at them with a hollow stare.

  “AubrieAnna, are you sure? He told them
about your family.” Sebastian didn’t let him go. He was waiting for me to deliver a punishment.

  “I am sure. He deserves whatever they do to him.” I turned and walked toward the casting room, leaving them behind. Thanks to Luke, I could lose anyone in my family, Alexandier included. Part of me wanted to call my brother and tell him to come home immediately, but I had a feeling that would allow them to capture him. I just had to tell him to be careful, to be smart, and always carry something with him that would protect him. Sighing, I sat down against the wall. This whole thing was my fault. If I hadn’t sent a message to the u da yv la dv, none of this would have happened. Clamora wouldn’t be on her deathbed, and no one in my family would be in danger. I cradled my head in my hands and tried to ignore the onslaught of guilt. Unfortunately, it didn’t work as well as I wanted it to. Sebastian walked in the room, set the bags down on the table, and came to sit in front of me.

  Almost as if he could hear my thoughts, he said, “It is not your fault. I hope you know that. If it didn’t happen when it did, it would have happened later down the road, but it still would have happened. You cannot always change what fate has in store for you and everyone around you.” He rubbed my arms then stood up and walked away.

  Feeling somewhat better, I got up and went to help him set up for our ritual. I found the casting bowl, white chalk, salt, and a feather. While I grabbed those items, he went up to get a lock of hair from Clamora’s hairbrush. By the time he returned, I had already written down her name on the table in chalk, set the candles where they needed to be in alternating in colors, and drew the circle around the table and where we would be standing. Before we started, Sebastian reached into the cupboard and grabbed a ritual dagger. Taking a few cleansing breaths, I focused on Clamora and staying calm. It was time to start the process.