Power Surge

by S. L. Perrine

  Elle’s house was smaller than the one I grew up in. It was a condo, and the building next door was attached to theirs. I hadn’t been there since I was thirteen or so, because we never had adult supervision at Crystal’s house. Her parents had separated before Crystal was born. There was a slight possibility, at one time, when she thought her parents would get back together, but Crystal had spent an entire weekend at my house getting over that upset.

  Crystal’s older brother, Peter, was always above babysitting us. He didn’t much care to look after anyone but himself. I had almost forgotten about him until he stepped downstairs wearing nothing but a pair of boxers.

  “Bloody hell, Crystal!” he screamed when he saw me at the kitchen table and ran back upstairs.

  “College didn’t teach you how to get dressed!” Crystal yelled in return.

  “Ha ha. Very funny. You could have mentioned you had a girl here,” he continued their conversation from upstairs.

  I rolled my eyes and grabbed my bag, throwing it over my shoulder. “I’ll see you later. Come by after lunch with your dad.”

  “You don’t have to go. I actually forgot he was home, but I’m sure…he’s putting clothes on.” She raised her voice with the end of her sentence, clearly for Peter to hear her.

  “Really, it’s okay. Just stop by later. We have to go over graduation plans anyway.” I was clearly rushing.

  “Yeah, the Dublin trip. Okay, I’ll stop by.” I gave her a brief hug before Peter started down the stairs and slipped out the front door. I had a sort of crush on him when we were younger. He had always had his father’s dirty blond hair and green eyes that made me swoon. Saying I was positive that crush had been extinguished when I started dating Chad officially, well, couldn’t be said, and I didn’t really want to find out.

  When I got home, Chad was waiting. It looked like he was pacing up and down the hilled drive, and when I got close enough to him, I could see his expression was full of anxiety. Although, I couldn’t help noticing how good he was looking. His short dark hair was its usual mess, his dark eyes were brooding, and he was wearing his usual bad boy outfit, complete with his favorite jean jacket and work boots. I parked the Cooper and saw he had followed me up to the house. The windows looked dark. It didn’t appear that anyone was inside as I got out of my little car and walked back to him.

  “What’s the matter?” I could see the anxiety move from his face and he reached out, pulling me to him and wrapping his arms protectively around my waist. “Has something happened?” I begged him.

  “I got word from my father.” Chester had gone to Dublin already to meet with Ophelia and the rest of my father’s coven there. “He thinks there might be someone working against us. Giving Sabina information about our plans. He thinks we should delay our trip by a week.”

  “Why?” I asked, confused by the sudden change. My father, Silas, had told me, when I last saw him and my mother in a vision quest, that he completely trusted every one of his coven members. He and my mother felt it was another who had betrayed them all those years ago.

  Chad put his hand in his pocket and when he pulled it out, he held a small white rock. “Because of this.”

  I recognized the stone. It was the same one I had found under my bed a few months ago. Actually, I had found two. “Where did you find that?”

  “It was in the box with the rest of your circle tools. I went upstairs to look for it on my father’s orders.” I looked at the house quickly, noting it indeed looked empty. “Don’t worry. Nobody’s home.”

  “Okay, but does that mean he knows what it’s for? All I could find out is that it’s used as garden stone. It illuminates in the dark.” I mulled over the information I found while searching the internet. It was a difficult task to begin with, having very little to go on. Add Wicca into the mix, and the search came up empty.

  “Yes, because it has magical abilities. It’s infused with an Earth affinity. It can feel your presence and more than likely, your power. Chester thinks whoever planted it was using it to drain your powers.” He took my face in his hand. “Which means it may be the reason why your powers have been erratic. We need to bury them in the churchyard,” he added quickly.

  “That isn’t possible. I found those under my bed. The only people who’ve been in there is Helen and …” I let the thought drift away. I could not think one of my friends had been working for my aunt. “No. That’s not possible,” I repeated and pulled away from him.

  “E, where is the other one? I couldn’t find it. We need to get rid of them, so they can’t affect you, and you can work on your powers. Then we can figure out who in our circle-”

  “No!” I stopped him from saying the words. There was no way I could believe any of my friends, my coven, could be helping that mean witch.

  “Where is it? We can figure out the rest later.”

  “My night stand drawer,” I said. I started to shake and pulled my hands under my arms to keep them from exploding magic.

  “Stay here.” He kissed my forehead and took off.

  I watched him as he ran into the house. A light in my bedroom window came on, and almost as quickly, it turned off. I hadn’t been paying much attention to my own senses, but as he jogged back down the stairs, I could feel the intensity in which he felt he had to get rid of the stones. He was scared. I didn’t have to be an empath to know that. I saw it on his face as he spoke. The fact that one of our friends could have put those in my room made me scared, too. The quickening of his heart snapped me from my thoughts. I didn’t feel the calm beats of my witch boyfriend, because just then, he was animal.

  Chad and another one of our coven members, Matt Tanner, were shifters. Their entire families were as well. They had magic and could cast spells and join in rituals, but their active power was to change forms. While Matt could shift into anything with a pulse, Chad was limited to feral animals. He was a protector.

  The empathic abilities came to me much more easily than the others. I stood in the driveway next to my car. My eyes were closed, and I still hugged my hands to my body. I felt his aggression. A wild beast moved through the woods behind the houses in the neighborhood. His haunches tightened with each movement as he raced to the cemetery ground, which surrounded the churchyard. Either would work to protect me from the stones effects.

  “No, don’t think of the stones. Think only of Chad,” I heard myself say aloud. My eyes were still closed, but the inside of my lids filled red with the brightness of the sun that was beating on me. I raised my head to the sky and listened for Chad's erratic breathing. Of my wolf. He was magnificent as a wolf. The first time I had seen him shift, that was the animal he had chosen. He was larger than an average-sized animal and his coat of fur was a shade of gray that made me think of sad and dreary days, but he was still beautiful. I could feel him as he reached the cemetery grounds, and when he started to dig, I swear I could feel the cool dirt against my skin and smell the fresh soil as it was pulled from the earth. I also felt a pulse within it, like it was offering itself to me.

  “Elyse?” I spun around so quickly, my hands came free of my body. I froze quickly when I saw it was just Crystal standing there with her brother.

  “Don’t shoot!” he yelled as my hands flew out. I couldn’t help but laugh as I felt Chad drop the stones and replace the soil from where it had come. Knowing he was on his way back, I released my senses from him.

  “What in the world?” I asked and laughed.

  “Well, Peter heard you say to stop by, so-” She was quickly interrupted.

  “So, I said let’s skip lunch with dad and come see you. Mainly, I wanted to apologize. I can be pretty rude when I’m nervous.”

  “I suppose I can accept that”–I eyed him– “but why skip out on lunch? I’m sure your dad is looking forward to seeing you. You’ve been gone all year.” I couldn’t remember, but I was sure he hadn’t even come home from school for the holidays this year. I knew Elle probably didn’t mind, since she was working like a dog to pa
y for that ‘damned school,’ as she called it. However, I knew he had a great relationship with his father. They both did. Except for a very unsettling almost-reconciliation between their parents a few years back, they always had a great relationship with him. They didn’t mind that he wasn’t magical at all. It was one of the reasons Elle’s ex was her ex.

  “No, daddy called after you left. He’s down a guy at the store, so he’s picking up the shift. Since he’s the manager, he kinda has too,” she finished with a smack to Peter’s arm.

  The front door closing made me jump. Chad had come back through the house, I guessed in case someone had seen him disappear into the front door. Then, I realized in animal form. I almost forgot why I was standing in the driveway when Crystal and Peter showed up, until Chad gave me a knowing look that said it was over.

  “All done?” I was relieved knowing fully that he had buried the stones deep within the ground.

  “Yes, they won’t cause any more problems. Now we just have to make sure nobody puts more in your room.” He walked up to me and placed his arm possessively around my shoulders.

  “Hey, Chad.” Peter speaking made me all too aware of the reason Chad had a scowl on his face and his arm so tightly around my shoulder. I reached up and grabbed his hand, pulling his arm down and lacing our fingers together, which made him keep his arm at his side.

  “Hey,” Chad said lazily.

  “Peter just got home last night. I told him he could tag along with us to Dublin. I hope that’s okay,” Crystal said in her usual upbeat tone. She was completely oblivious to the testosterone war going on.

  I felt Chad's fingers tighten around mine as we stood there and instantly changed my mind about holding his hand. Letting go, I put my hands to work grabbing my bag from inside Cooper. “Yeah, sure, that’s fine. With all the crap going on now, one more person around couldn’t hurt,” I answered her, since Chad and Peter were still doing a stare-off.

  “Why? What’s happening now?” Crystal followed me around the car, leaving the boys to brood.

  “Remember that stone I found in my room? Chester called and gave us a tip that he thinks one of the coven members is working for Sabina. Also, the stone was placed in my room to siphon my magic away from me.” I lifted my bag and shut the door.

  Crystal tensed up. Her usual calm disposition changed to inner turmoil. She scrunched her face, as she always did when she was deep in thought. When she spoke again, her voice sounded hoarse. “What? There’s no way any of the rents are working against you. Not for Sabina, anyway.” She said, using the nickname we’d come to use when talking about anyone’s parents in our group.

  “Not one of the rents, Crystal. One of Silas’s coven members,” Chad spoke to her, breaking his contact with Peter.

  “What’s wrong, Crystal?” Peter went to her and pulled his sister's arm, turning her to look at him. I had been so preoccupied with the feeling I was getting from Chad that I couldn’t tell my best friend was having some kind of an anxiety attack. I rushed over and pulled her from Peter.

  “Hey, it’s okay. We’ll figure this all out. Just forget about it for now, okay?” I looked at her and thought she was turning blue. “Chad!”

  Chad ran over and laid his hand on her shoulder. He rubbed her arm down to her wrist and then grabbed her hand. When her color started to come back and her breathing was normal, he let her go.

  Her face was almost white as a sheet, but she managed to shake her head in agreement. “Forget about it for now,” she said when she caught her breath. I really wasn’t surprised by my best friend’s reaction to finding out one of our own was conspiring with the enemy. Just as she wouldn’t be surprised at what I was going to do to the person, when I found out who it was. She had always been the one with her heart on her sleeve, as opposed to mine, which was always locked in a black box.

  We would worry about all of that later. We had plans to make for our end of the year graduation bash that was being held at the Blackwood Estate. All the families had agreed a combined party would be a lot easier on us and them, since our camping trip was in a little over a week. Finals had ended, and we would walk the stage in three days. Then, two days after would be the big blowout bash. All the rents, even my non-magical adopted parents, would be combining efforts to throw us all a big party before we took off. Since our yard had been overused lately, Mr. Blackwood and his wife had offered to host, not to mention they could secure the perimeter with protection spells. They thought if Sabina would try anything, it was possible she would then. A large crowd of people is the best and most likely place for her to obtain her goal, unless her goal had nothing to do with getting to me. In which case, the Crawford family Book of Shadows was already in Dublin with the rest of my father’s coven, which meant the enemy may already have a plan in motion to get it.

  Ophelia had offered to hide it with my other book, the one that had belonged to my father’s family. I hadn’t really gotten a chance to look at it. All I remember was that it was very old and covered in dark leather, with embossed silver letters and rope framing the edges of the cover, front and back. I hadn’t even approached it when my Aunt Bea used it to infuse the power spell, from my father’s family, into the spell used for my mother’s family. They were quite similar, but the wording had to be just right. She said it was the way all spells worked. I had only learned on my eighteenth birthday that I was a witch. So, I had no idea how spells worked. Anyway, I figured if Sabina was after the Crawford family Book of Shadows, if she found it, she would then have both.

  “We’re not delaying the trip at all. We leave earlier.” The power in my voice projected the High Priestess I was afraid I’d never be. I let go of Crystal–her face had resumed its cheerful pink coloring–and stepped towards Chad. “First thing Monday morning.”

  “What? We can’t. My father-”

  I cut him off with a wave of my hand. “No, we leave Monday. End of discussion.” I knew Ophelia wasn’t the traitor, but I couldn’t afford to allow anyone to get their hands on both my parents' books. “Tell Chester we will meet him there.”

  He looked hurt, and when I pushed my senses, I could feel his confusion. “But graduation?”

  “I’m sorry, but this is how it has to be. I have to think of the bigger picture. All of a sudden, my mind is clear, and I know what the news he sent means. I can’t risk losing both,” I said to them all standing beside me.

  “The book!” he shouted as what I was saying hit him.

  “No Chad, plural. Books,” I reminded him.

  “Wait, what does that mean?” Peter asked.

  “The Books of Shadows. They're together in the same place right now,” Chad announced. All of a sudden, Crystal looked as if she was going to faint.

  Chapter Six

  She couldn’t believe it. She had done what she was told to do, for Elyse’s own good. Not only was it not for her own good, but the traitor everyone was looking for was right there in their faces every day. Would it matter to them if she did it without knowing what it was that she was doing? Would they throw her out of the group? No. She couldn’t let that happen. She had to make it right. She had to make sure they knew she had no idea what those stones were for. She was told it would center Elyse’s mind while she slept; keep her grounded to the earth. They were supposed to help her control her powers, not take them away. First, she needed to confront her mother. She was the one who had given her those stones, asking her to plant them under Elyse’s bed. She’s the one who lied to her and made her work against her best friend.

  She ditched Peter and headed downtown to her mother’s law office. She had made partner years ago and had a separate office from the rest of the firm. Crystal wasn’t sure what kind of lawyer her mother was, but she knew she was good at what she did. If she racked her brain hard enough, she probably would only come up with one-time Elle Walters had ever lost a case. She had come home completely wasted and stayed up until three in the morning, drinking and watching lifetime moves. When Crystal and Peter
found her the next morning, she had fallen asleep surrounded by an ocean of used, wadded-up tissues and an empty gin bottle in her hand. After that night, Elle hadn’t drunk more than a glass of anything and worked harder than Crystal could have ever remembered her working before.

  That was the beginning of the end. From that day, Crystal and Peter hadn’t seen their mother for more than an hour or two a day. When she was home, she was holed up in her office and always had the Bluetooth speaker attached to her ear.

  Crystal reached the office at exactly noon but knew her mother would be up to her elbows in work while she picked at whatever salad had been delivered to her for lunch.

  The front of the office was like any other storefront. The wall was a great big window, complete with gold lettering, which read:

  Elle Mae Walters

  Attorney at Law

  Hardstone, Cooper & Walters

  When she opened the door, a little bell chimed, alerting those working in the office that someone had entered. The reception area was small. There was a single dark wood desk, holding a large computer monitor, keyboard, and mouse. There was a large phone with about a dozen buttons on it. Crystal doubted any of them were ever used in the one-person office. The woman who sat behind the desk was a mousy little brunette. Her hair was pulled tightly into a bun on the back of her head, just as Elle herself wore her hair every day. She wore a crème blouse and dark brown skirt, which flowed down to her ankles when she stood and walked to the water cooler. It was evident the woman hadn’t noticed her walk into the office yet by the fact that she was talking into a Bluetooth speaker on her ear, similar to the one her boss wore. When she turned, she saw Crystal standing there and put her index finger in the air to signal she’d be with her in just a moment. Crystal didn’t have long to wait. Once the woman walked to her desk, she said her goodbyes and pushed the button on the speaker.

  “Hello. What can I do for you?”