“But we’re careful,” I said calmly. “If it’s too open we have a look out. Otherwise we take precautions to keep people from stumbling upon us; these guys don’t seem concerned about that.”
“That’s true,” Jodi conceded.
“And we don’t do blood magic and they are,” Steven said.
“And that’s what really worries me,” I said, finally pulling the crystal away from the map and marking the spot it pointed to with a pin.
“How can anyone be so confident, so arrogant as to not worry about being caught? Do they think they’re that powerful? That they’re above concealment?” Jodi asked.
“You know, I really didn’t think of it that way,” Steven said, worry creeping into his voice.
“So you think they’re doing something to the person or thing that interrupts them?” Jodi asked.
“I don’t know,” I was getting frustrated. “That’s the thing! Whatever or whoever is interrupting them mid-clean up, right?”
“Right,” they said in chorus.
“So if they were taking the time to do something to it or them then they should still have time to clean up. Unless…” I stood and walked to the window, looking out to the orchards.
“Unless?” Steven urged.
“Unless they’re so violent and erratic that they get consumed with dealing with the interruption that they just totally forget what they were doing.”
“That’s comforting,” Jodi said sarcastically.
“Exactly.” I wrapped my arms around my chest, hugging myself against the cold air and wondering what exactly had intruded upon our sleepy little town.
It was going to be a crappy day at school tomorrow, or rather today. It was just past midnight and we were headed to Ojai. We had to wait until after Jodi was done with her date with Jay, who was feeling neglected, and our parents were asleep so they wouldn’t ask us where we were going. We also wanted to make sure the coast would be clear of reporters and police. We knew the police would’ve cleaned the area but physical evidence wasn’t important to us; we knew the residual energies would still be there and we were hoping to figure out what the point of the ritual was.
“So do you really think we’ll be able to figure out who these people are?” Steven asked from the back seat.
“No, not really, but maybe we’ll pick up an aura. Then, if we see them out in town, we’ll recognize them. But really,” I explained as I turned onto the Ojai freeway, “the most important thing to find out right now is why they’re doing what they’re doing. Maybe it really is just a bunch of kids getting mixed up in something they don’t realize is dangerous.”
“You don’t really think it’s kids, do you?” Jodi asked skeptically.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head a little. “Deb’s right, we’re still considered kids. Maybe these people are too.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Jodi said with a sigh. She was feeling much better after finishing the tea Deb made her. I would have to remember to ask what she’d given Jodi.
I hated driving into the woods at night, even if I was going there by choice. It was always creepy, like the beginning of a bad horror movie. Jodi had the map from the tree house, keeping track of our progress carefully, trying to get us as close to the ritual spot as possible without walking. None of us were too thrilled with the idea of hiking a mile in the dark.
“Ok,” I said, rolling the car to a stop and putting the emergency brake on. “It’s too thick through here to drive any farther.” I sighed, staring at the dense blackness of the forest, the headlights not making much of a dent in the foliage.
“Great,” Steven muttered unhappily.
“Yeah,” I echoed his feelings. We climbed out, all three of us armed with Maglite flashlights that doubled as handheld weapons. Three beams of light swept the area around us before we popped the trunk and pulled out our supplies. We’d brought some consecrated water, five white pillar candles, a scrying bowl and an athame. We didn’t need anything for earth or air being in the forest. We each carried part of the load and Jodi kept the map in front of her, folded to only show our path to keep her from getting confused.
“Fae?” I turned to Jodi and she nodded, setting her flashlight on the ground. She turned towards the direction we would head in, hands open at her sides and her eyes closed. Steven and I each placed a hand on her shoulder, lending her our energy. In a few moments a swirling, seeking wind gusted around us and flew out into the trees. We waited while Jodi worked. It took a few minutes but she finally opened her eyes as the wind died away.
“No one here but us,” she confirmed.
“Well that’s something at least,” Steven said, bending to pick up Jodi’s flashlight and handed it to her.
“Ready?” Jodi asked, checking the compass she pulled from her back pocket.
“Guess so,” Steven said. Jodi took a step and broke the tree line, Steven and I following closely behind. We were able to find the area we were looking for with little trouble, making the map almost pointless. The forest reeked with the scent of burnt frankincense, myrrh and old blood. I had reached out tentatively once we caught that scent to see if anything was lingering and was almost instantaneously burned with the residual energy. I wondered if this was the same energy Deb’s coven had felt telling them it was male energy.
“Great,” I grumbled.
“What?” Jodi asked in a whisper.
“They were angry, at least at the end, and left that energy lying around.” I heard Jodi shiver. If you allowed your emotions to get out of control so much so that you left an imprint of them behind, you could create entities, angry or mischievous things that are hell bent on causing torment or chaos for their own entertainment.
“So we’re gonna be cleaning before we leave. Fabulous.” Steven’s voice reached me in the darkness. I nodded before I remembered he couldn’t really see me.
The clearing was almost a perfect circle, as if it was created for casting and rituals. We hesitated on the very edge of the circle, not really wanting to step inside a circle cast by enemies unknown. I opened the bottle of consecrated water and poured a little into my hand and flung it into the open area in front of us. The water landed on the ground, soaking into the forest floor without a sound. “At least they banished their circle before leaving,” I said before taking the first step into the clearing.
“If they even bothered with a circle,” Steven said darkly. The thought that someone was casting with the intent of evil without a circle was just plain scary. The purpose of a circle was not only to protect the caster inside but also to contain the magic being worked within; without the circle the magic and energy could run wild.
“Let’s get started.” I said, pulling the scrying bowl out of the bag I had slung over my shoulder.
“We are going to do a circle, right?” Jodi asked. I caught a hint of fear in her voice.
“Of course,” I said, walking out into the middle of the clearing, setting the bowl down. “I’d actually like to do a double circle again for extra protection.” We drew the circle the same way we had at the beach the other night.
I sat down cross legged. Jodi sat on my right, her knee nearly touching mine, and Steven sat on my left after he set the candles at five points around the circle. In our triangle inside the circle, we joined hands and I grounded our energies into the earth below us. I had to reach deeper than normal until I found clean earth that was untouched by the previous nights’ workings. I felt Steven raise his energy, concentrating deeply, and then suddenly sent it out to the five candles, each bursting into flame. In chorus, the three of us invoked protective shields around the circles and around us. When we were ready, I poured some of the consecrated water into the bowl.
“Fae, if you please?” I asked as I watched a fine mist appear, rolling over the surface of the water. Jodi opened her eyes to stare at the water, her brows kitting together in concentration. A few moments passed and I could hear leaves rustling softly around us just before a
gentle breeze caught the ends of my hair and swirled over the bowl, blowing the mist away. This was a good sign; we were blowing away things that were clouding our visions.
Slowly the water began to ripple and change color. As one, we leaned closer to the bowl to watch as the scene took form. The reds, yellows, and oranges of fire were predominate inside the bowl. There were gilding black shapes that seemed to be in some haphazard formation, either a circle or a line, in the bowl it was difficult to tell. Although we couldn’t actually hear anything, I had the sense of chanting in some forgotten tongue, like an echo in the back of my mind, just out of hearing.
The scene shifted and a tall black clad figure was standing behind a table with his hands held high and a glinting silver knife gripped in his right hand. There were two chickens laid on the table and, after a pause, the figure with the knife made a fast, slashing motion, killing the first chicken. I felt Jodi start next to me, forcing herself not to look away and break our concentration. The hood of the robe obscured the killer’s face in shadow, but with the length of pauses between slashes, I knew he was speaking, possibly chanting a spell. It was terribly frustrating not being able to hear what was being said. After the second chicken was killed and the table dripped with blood, the scene rotated and we saw the top of the table.
The black cloth covering the table was saturated with blood. Through the bloodstains, we could see the white embroidery of symbols decorating the cloth, glowing with magic. There was an inverted pentagram in the center with symbols drawn in each space made by the star and circle. I realized I was grinding my teeth and tried to relax my jaw; seeing an inverted pentagram bothered me as much as an upside down cross. Why couldn’t these creeps get their own symbols rather than pervert ours?
Jodi’s fear was cat claws in my stomach. A wind started whipping around us, leaves and dirt swirling and obscuring the view in the bowl. A trickle of sweat rolled down my cheek as Steven started to lose his concentration. We had had enough.
Chapter 9
Monday morning was just as bad as I had anticipated. It had taken so long to sketch the symbols we’d seen, dispel our circles, hike back to the car, and get home that we were only going to get a couple hours of sleep. I was armed with a thermos full of coffee and singles for the soda machines for later when I picked up Jodi and Steven, who looked almost as bad as I felt. Jodi had caked on more make-up than usual and Steven was wearing dark sunglasses and looked like he was suffering from a bad hangover. It was a silent drive to school; we didn’t argue over the radio stations or even bother to turn it on. The Straight Edge Kids were about to walk into school looking like they’d been on an all-night bender. So much for reputations.
Home Ec was both a blessing and a curse. We were making cookies again so we’d get some lovely sugar and carbs, but the sound of banging pans and whirling hand mixers was enough to make my ears bleed. Thank goodness the cookies were wonderfully traditional chocolate chip – I don’t think I could have taken any more raisins at this point. When the bell finally rang, Steven and I rushed out of there as fast as our headaches would allow. I was disappointed to see that by the end of class my thermos was already half empty. We caught up to Jodi outside of her Chem class, looking worse for wear.
“Let me tell you,” she said in an angry tone, “formaldehyde fumes on an empty stomach is not a combination I’d like to repeat.”
“Here,” Steven handed her some of our leftover cookies we’d saved for her.
“Oh! I love you!” She took the cookies greedily and started scarfing them down immediately. We all set out for French, knowing it would take a miracle to stay awake during the lecture. “Oh!” Jodi said around a mouthful of cookie. “I have to tell you something in class.”
“What?” I asked, wondering why she couldn’t tell us now.
“No, not here,” she swallowed a large bite. “I don’t want people to overhear.”
“Or interrupt your eating,” Steven said. Jodi just shrugged and took another bite. We settled into our desks, looking more sloppy than normal. I had even abandoned my favorite coat and scarf for fleece lined boots and an oversized hooded sweatshirt and fuzzy fingerless gloves. If it weren’t for the jeans, I could’ve been ready to go to bed. Both Jodi and Steven had dressed similarly. Luckily, because of the cold weather, no one thought it was odd.
As soon as Madame Beaumont went into her lecture on formal versus informal adjectives, I felt Steven’s fingers press my shoulder blade through my sweatshirt. I was tempted to use my foot to touch Jodi, not wanting to sit up, but the ground had been wet and my boot was dirty. She wouldn’t thank me for that. I sat up and leaned casually on my right forearm and reached with my left hand to touch Jodi.
So what’s up? I asked dully, hoping I wasn’t paying extra attention just for idle gossip.
Ian has bruises on his face and cuts on his hands. Jodi’s yellow thoughts were anxious; it was hard to tell if it was because she knew this was so interesting or if she was worried.
What kind of bruises? Steven asked.
His left cheek is swollen with a small cut and his right ear looks like cauliflower, Jodi said.
Whoa… Steven’s thoughts echoed mine. What else was there to say? Ian was huge and someone had taken him on in a fight and managed to do some damage. How bad is the swelling? Steven asked.
I don’t know, he wasn’t actually in class; Tracy was just talking to me about it, Jodi said. I had forgotten that they were lab partners in Chem.
Are you ready to hear who he fought? Jodi dangled the carrot in front of us.
What? You know who he fought? I asked, surprised.
Yep. She sounded a little smug.
How?
Tracy was at their house yesterday, Jodi said.
Ok, who’d he fight? Steven asked, his red thoughts sounded like he was on pins and needles.
Jensen, Jodi drew out the name, tasting each syllable.
WHAT? Steven and I cried together.
Yep! And Tracy claims Ian looks worse than Jensen. All Jensen has is a split lip.
Wow… Steven thought in awe.
Well, I imagine there’s the possibility of other wounds not visible to the eye, I thought. Know why they fought?
No. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I asked her, but she said she didn’t know. I guess the fight happened late Saturday night and she saw him on Sunday but he wouldn’t give her too many details. Jodi sounded disappointed at that last. We broke the channel then as Madame Beaumont was coming around to check off homework.
I had never been so anxious to get to math class as I was today; I wanted to see if Jensen really was ok with my own eyes. Jodi complained as I hurried through the halls. She was still dragging while I’d finished off my thermos in of coffee French class, giving myself a little extra energy. I reached the classroom door just as Jensen did from the other direction; we stopped face to face at the threshold. I took the brief moment to search his face and saw, with some relief, that he really had only suffered a split lip, which was already healing. It was the one mar on his beautiful face. He smiled softly to me; I tried not to cringe when I watched his lips stretch the wound. He nodded slightly and held out his right hand towards the door, offering to let me pass first.
Jodi had to urge me through by pushing on the small of my back to remind me how to walk. Good lord. Warming up to him are we? Jodi’s teasing thoughts swirled in my mind as I took my seat.
“I forgot to tell you…” I whispered to her as I pulled out my book and paper for today’s problems. “About Friday night.”
“Oh yeah, how was dinner with Steven?” she asked casually.
“Steven cancelled too.”
“Oh no! I’m sorry!” She sounded genuinely upset. “So what did you do?”
“Oh, I stayed and had dinner. Grandma sat me too fast to stop her.”
“So you ate alone? That’s fun.”
“I wasn’t alone,” I dangled the information just like she had in French class.
I went on to
explain the awkward dinner conversation, not sparing any details because I knew she would know if I did. Her face had grown more and more shocked as I told the story. I eventually reached forward and put my hand under her chin and closed her mouth for her. She swallowed loudly, blinking for the first time in at least a minute. She shook her head as if trying to shake out her hair and then leaned into me, eyes narrowed.
“Are you telling me that you really told him about our powers?” her voice was a hiss, worry and accusation warring with her tone.
“No,” I said firmly. “I only told him about my empathetic abilities, I didn’t tell him anything else. He told me he knows about shields and that’s how he keeps me from reading him and that kinda distracted him from anything else.”
“What do you mean? Distracted him from what?”
“He asked about the parking lot thing,” I shrugged, finishing up a problem, checking Jodi’s page to make sure I was right. “I danced around it enough and then we got onto the subject of my being an Empath and him knowing about shields and I guess he must’ve forgotten that he asked about what I’d done to the ground.” I tilted my head to the side, thinking. “Or maybe he just gave up asking about it because I wouldn’t admit it. I stuck to our plan.” That seemed to appease Jodi enough to relax her face.
“But how could you tell him about you being an Empath?” she demanded quietly.
“I didn’t really, he already knew, he just didn’t know what it was called.” I explained and then continued quickly when she opened her mouth to protest, “Besides, it was better than him thinking I’m some kind of monster that feeds on people’s emotions.”
“Yeah…” she paused, thinking about that. “Yeah, I guess that’s true. If he thought that and didn’t like it, God knows what he’d try to do to you or say about you.”
“Exactly,” I said, finishing the last of today’s problems. Jodi finished at the same time as me and I grabbed both our papers to take to the teacher’s desk. Jodi smiled weakly, but appreciatively, and then folded her arms on the desk and put her head down.
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