by Sariah Skye
I shot Gabriel a confused look. Sure, she looked ill but if she felt like helping, who were we to stop her? It was her place of business.
Kit hesitated. "Well…you know I think I’ll just run through the shop for a few minutes. Make sure there isn’t anything important left behind." She gave a weak smile and gingerly stepped around the glass. She paused at the door and laughed, deciding to go through the broken window instead. I chucked at Kit’s dippy display. Normally she was always with it and put together. This cold was really taking its toll on her.
"Good idea," I said. "Gabriel?" I motioned my head towards the truck. "Let’s let her rest then."
He paused and started to open his mouth but I shot him daggers with my eyes. He relented and quickly followed me to the truck like a dog who’d just got caught eating out of the garbage.
"What was that?" I asked, as we got in and shut our doors to the truck behind us in unison, glaring at him.
Gabriel gave me a serious stare. "You know that magic? On the shop?"
"Yeah?"
"Your friend has the same magic signature on her," he said.
I gasped. "What?"
He nodded, while turning the ignition over and pulling carefully out of the parking lot. "Yeah. She’s full of arcane energy."
"Does that mean…she’s…possessed?" I stammered, feeling mortified at the idea.
"No, no. Just that whatever magic was used here, she caught a big brunt of it," he explained. "I don’t know how, but she did. I think that’s what happened when she touched you. It wasn’t a static charge. It was a magic charge. That magic clearly doesn’t like yours."
I rubbed my shoulder, recalling a few moments ago the shock. Now that he mentioned it, it really didn’t feel like static electricity. Static usually didn’t hurt like that.
"Rest assured that’s no cold she has," Gabriel said, a stern expression on his face as he traversed the highway. "By the way, tell me where we are heading?"
I gave him directions to continue a few miles down the highway, there’d be a frontage road to the right. "Is she going to be okay?"
He nodded. "Oh yeah, sure. It’s like you, you expended a lot of energy using that magic to fight whatever that was. Even though she isn’t magical, the human body can still repel magic on the rare instance they are exposed to it but it takes a lot out of her."
I breathed a sigh of relief. "That’s good. She is a pagan, you know. She calls herself a ‘witch’ sometimes."
"Really? Well perhaps that could be a bit of it. A pagan’s spellcasting is all about intent. Perhaps she drew the energy to her, if it was nearby. Perhaps she’s learning to hone magic a bit."
"Dark magic?" I was alarmed.
"Magic isn’t dark or light, necessarily. It’s all about intent, remember."
"So trying to raise someone from the dead isn’t a bad thing?" I challenged, partially kidding. I wasn’t even sure if that was possible. If sorcerers and oracles were well, I guessed there was a possibility.
Gabriel chuckled. "Necromancy is a tricky thing. You don’t really raise the dead but…channel their spirit."
"What?" My mouth fell open. "Zombies?"
He roared. "Once a body is dead, it’s dead. No coming back. But a necromancer is a good example of someone who works with perceived ‘black’ magic usually to help rid a home of specters, or help a soul on its right path."
"Wow," I said. "As if dragons weren’t strange enough, huh?"
"Yeah, as if." He sat in silent thought for a moment. "But anyway, that’s why I was trying to get her to go home. If that magic jumped from her to you just from that brief touch, then being around her for very long might not be the wisest thing."
"You’re saying you think Kit would attack me?"
"No, but the magic obviously was triggered when it was near you. If it’s draining her, it would certainly drain you if you aren’t careful. She really just needs to sleep it off for a few days. Since she isn’t actually magical there’s nothing to keep it there for long, it will fade away," he said. "But I still want to perform some kind of a cleansing protection spell on her, if she’s still there. It should help expel the signature faster and she should feel better by morning, especially if you help me channel it."
"Sure," I said. "Whatever I have to do."
"Good." He said. We pulled into the local lumberyard and selected a sheet of plywood and a box of nails and a hammer, paid and were on our way.
We arrived back at the coffee shop, unloaded the plywood and were carrying it over to the window when I saw Kit slumped over the counter inside the shop, not moving.
I shrieked, and started to drop the wood when I remembered I was carrying one side. "Oh no, Kit!"
"Drop it," Gabriel said, and we both let the wood fall to the ground with a slight thud and dashed through the broken glass wall into the shop.
"Kit! Kit?" I screamed frantically, shaking her shoulder.
Kit stood upright again with a gasp. "Oh! Oh, Leo! I’m sorry!" She peeled some hair stuck to her face off and wiped some spittle off the corner of her mouth. "I don’t know what’s gotten into me, seriously!"
"God, Kit! Seriously…you really need to get home. This is nuts! I can handle the shop, the cleaning crew will be here tomorrow, I’ll let them in…you just go home and get better, okay?"
Kit heaved a heavy sigh. "Oh, Leo, you’re right. I just…whatever this is it’s awful. I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck. My head is fuzzy and I’m like so hungry all the time for the most disgusting food!"
I shot Gabriel a helpless look, while I wrapped my arms around my friend and gave her a big hug.
He nodded.
"It’ll be okay, Kit. You just need some rest. The storms just rattled you; you got sick, that’s all," I tried to be soothing as I patted her back.
Kit let out a pitiful whimper. "I know but, I never get sick. This is awful!"
"I know, I know. Just let it out. Tell me all about it," I said soothingly, trying to sound like someone’s comforting mother (even though I have no idea what that would sound like, of course).
Kit began to explode into sobs. Uncontrollable, gasping sobs. I just held her and let her cry. Kit was not a crier—unless we were watching Titanic or something equally as depressing.
Gabriel inhaled deeply and shut his eyes. He held out his palms. I couldn’t tell what he was doing, exactly but when he’d been like that for a few moments, I inhaled and exhaled myself, letting out a shower of sparkles into the air. I watched as they flew about a moment and finally settled into Kit’s messy hair and unkempt clothes.
Gabriel nodded in approval when I looked to him and seemed more relaxed.
Kit’s sobs subsided to sniffles and she pulled away after a few moments. "Oh, sorry Leo…it really is surprising to feel this bad. I have never felt this bad before, seriously."
"I know," I said, wishing I could tell her exactly why she was feeling this badly but it was better to let her think it was a bad cold.
"And just look at this place!" she gestured around the lobby. About the only thing left standing were the heavy machines. Most of the mugs, cups and saucers lay shattered on the floor, papers were blown about everywhere, all the knick-knacks (carved wooden Minnesota animals, signage and etc.) were tossed about on the floor or knocked over. It didn’t look like too many of them were broken beyond repair—which was good because I knew how Kit loved her tchotchkes (as she liked to call them).
"Kit, why don’t you just go in the car, Leo here will drive you home and I’ll get this boarded up. It’ll only take a minute or two to get that board up and then I’ll be behind you and I can bring Leo back," Gabriel offered.
She nodded. "Yeah, I’m sure that’s best," she said, wiping her nose on her sleeve with a sniffle. She chuckled. "Wow, I must have really needed that cry, I’m actually feeling a bit better now."
I tried to hide a smirk and Gabriel winked at me. "That’s good. I’m glad to hear that." I patted her on the back and tried to wipe some of th
e sparkles out of her hair, hoping she wouldn’t notice but she did anyway.
"Oh! Glitter!" she groaned, trying to shake out her hair and pointed at a snowglobe that had fallen to the ground. "Must have gotten glitter on me from that. Geez, how’d that happen?" she asked rhetorically with a chuckle. "That sucks, I liked that one," she said regrettably. It was a snowman with a sign in front saying "Welcome to Minnesota" and when you shook it, it looked like a white-out blizzard.
"We’ll find another, the internet is a great thing," I said, with a laugh. I began to lead her out of the shop.
"Oh, are you sure you are okay here? It’s awfully nice of you to do this and you barely even know me," she said, as we passed Gabriel in the lobby she reached out and grasped his forearm. He tried not to wince and instead forced a smile.
"Well, any friend of Leo’s is a friend of mine, like I said," he said cheerfully.
"You haven’t known Leo long though, right?" she asked.
Gabriel smiled warmly. "Not personally I suppose, but I’ve known of her for a long time."
I grinned. "On Facebook, that’s why I freaked out. At first I thought he was just some nut then I remembered we’ve talked on Facebook a few times."
"Oh, that’s nice! Where’d you find each other?"
"On a page about loving dragons," Gabriel said, his face totally serious.
I tried not to snort, but it came out as an incredulous barking sound. "Yeah, that was it."
"That’s cute," she said with a giggle. "Okay well…I suppose we should get going. Gabriel, seriously, thank you so much."
He waved her off. "Not at all. It’s the Minnesota nice thing to do right?"
She nodded and smiled. "Absolutely."
I gave Gabriel a smile and told him to call me so I could direct him to Kit’s, and I led Kit out the shop via the door instead of having her step over the broken window frame and piled her into her car.
"So, you said you’re feeling better, a little?" I questioned.
"Oh! Oh yes. Leo, I can’t thank you enough for stepping in and— "
"God, Kit. Don’t thank me. All the stuff you do for me? You watched Sona countless times for me, picked up my slack at the shop when I ran off? It’s the least I could do."
"Still." She sat in silence for a moment, I glanced over at her, she was deep in thought. "You saved my ass, Leorah? You know that? More than once. It’s time I— "
"—Kit, come on! I was just doing what anyone would do who needed a job. And a friend. You don’t have to do that, you really don’t," I insisted, feeling a bit overwhelmed.
Kit placed her palm on my forearm earnestly. I felt a small shock, but not painful like before. A zap of sleepy electricity. I didn’t pull away, this time. "Seriously I do. I would not have made it without you, you are like a super woman. Or maybe a super hero. Or not even human, I don’t know."
I tried to stifle a laugh. Oh if she only knew. But that really didn’t have much to do with it. Dragons, like humans could be totally lazy if they wanted to be.
"Kit I’m nothing of the sort. I just really needed a job, you were there, I helped. That’s it."
"Well," she began, a hint of stubbornness in her tone. “When I’m feeling better and the shop is fully rehabilitated, you’ll allow me to take you to dinner? Drinks?"
I grinned. "Now that I will allow," I said, pulling into the entrance of her long driveway and up to her tiny farmhouse on the outskirts of town.
When we arrived I insisted Kit change into some comfortable sweats. I made her a relaxing blend of chamomile tea and made sure all her cats were fed before making her camp out on her cozy couch. It wasn't long before she drifted off to sleep; one of her cats sidled up beside her. The white kitty purred away in time with Kit's slight snore. It wasn't much longer until Gabriel arrived to pick me up. I was reluctant to leave but some of the blush in her cheeks had returned, her under-eye bags were not as pronounced and she appeared less haggard. I felt she'd be okay after a good night's sleep. Whatever Gabriel did, it definitely seemed to help. I asked him what exactly it was, when I climbed into the cab of his truck and shut the door behind me.
"Oh well…hard to explain, really. Whatever energy it was inhabiting Kit, it was negative."
"Dark?"
He made a hesitant noise. "Eh, no not dark. Dark energy isn’t necessarily bad, remember?"
I nodded. "Right, right… I guess I read too many paranormal fantasy books," I said, with a chuckle.
"Why does that not surprise me?" he laughed. "For Kit, I tried to channel the positive energy coming from you and channel it into her in hopes that it would help expel the negative force in her," he continued. "She seemed like she was feeling a bit better. Do you think it worked?"
"Oh, yes, definitely. She was beginning to perk up. She was smiling and laughing again. She didn’t look quite so tired. She did fall asleep before I left but that’s probably a good thing, right?"
He nodded. "Definitely," he said. "Since she’s not magical really it won’t have anything to grab onto, I guess you could say. Sleep is the body’s way of regenerating itself, of course. She would have slept it off anyways, but hopefully we gave her a good boost to help heal faster."
"How did she get like that, anyways?" I asked.
He sighed, thoughtfully. "Well, you know how we were in the shop and I stopped suddenly? I couldn’t go any further. It was there."
"It?"
"Whatever that energy is. Probably part of that conjured storm. The damage at the shop was the worst I’ve seen, besides the truckstop like I said before."
I was baffled by his words. Some random energy? Like a poltergeist or evil spirit or something from Harry Potter or some other horror-type flick? "But…what is it?"
Gabriel exhaled slowly. "I don’t know, really. Someone somewhere with some really bad intentions."
I groaned. "Wonderful. Could it be like a bad ghost or evil spirit?"
"No…" he trailed off in the middle of his thought. "No," he continued, "ghosts aren’t good or evil. They are manifestations of our very souls, but without a physical body they cannot do any harm."
My mouth fell, open, agape. "So could Kit have been possessed?"
Gabriel said nothing, I could see his mouth purse out of the peripheral vision of my eye, his knuckles tensing, turning white on the steering wheel.
"Shit," was all I said. "Shit!"
"I wouldn’t worry about that," Gabriel finally said, as we pulled into the lot outside my apartment. "Like I said, she’s not magical. Whatever this is, it’s magical in nature, more than likely she wasn’t possessed by anything," he said. "But that doesn’t mean something bad wasn’t around, trying."
I let out a low whistle.
"Since we don’t know what that was that was around the shop, causing the storm—my guess is some jackass warlock with some sort of personal vendetta—I can’t rule it out completely. She isn’t actually possessed but something nasty was around."
"Why would a warlock want to do that?"
"I don’t know, really." He sighed, pulling into the empty spot beside my Neon and turning the truck off. "But, I’m sure we’ll find out, sooner or later."
"Ugh," I grimaced, climbing down from the truck and rummaging through my purse for the keys to the apartment. "I was afraid you’d say that." I glanced around the complex briefly, shadows had fallen on the walls from the sun setting in the horizon, hiding some of the damage.
I entered my little home and tossed my keys and purse on the coffee table. It didn’t even rattle Sona who was dozing off in the middle of the sofa. I sighed in dismay, seeing the disarray and unkempt state of my apartment. "Ugh, well, I guess I better get to it," I said, wrinkling my nose, grabbing a handful of empty pop cans for the recycling.
"I think you should rest," Gabriel insisted, trying to snatch the cans away from me.
"No!" I protested, with a pout. "I am feeling better, now, really! Whatever you did to Kit, after you did it I felt a bit energized too," I said, pullin
g the cans out of his grasp. I pranced the ten steps to the recycling bin in the kitchen with a little kick to my heels and tossed the cans in. I turned around and stuck my tongue out at him. "See? I’m just fine."
He rolled his eyes, but smiled too. "Okay, okay. Far be it for me to argue with someone who could literally chew me out."
I wiggled my eyebrows at him. "You have no idea."
He chuckled. "Can I at least help?"
"Eh, sure. You can help by getting that lazy damn cat off my couch and getting her some dinner," I said, motioning towards her bowls and a plastic bin full of dry cat food in the corner of the kitchen. "I’ll take care of these plates," I said, grabbing an armful of dishes and tossing them into the sink, as they made plinking sounds.
I listened to food pour into Sona’s food bowl and the pitter-patter of little paws across the linoleum. The calico cat mewed and started nibbling.
I paused in my dish-tossing to turn to Gabriel. "You know, you don’t have to stick around. If you’ve got something to do…go ahead. I’ll be fine, now. Kit’s okay. I’m just going to pick up and maybe play some World of Warcraft and take a long bath and relax. Nothing interesting here."
Gabriel crossed his arms over his chest. "Are you trying to get rid of me?" he said, puffing out his lower lip in a mock pout.
"No!" I said, with a grin. I wiped my wet hands off on my shirt and stomped over to him. I poked at his pouty lip with my index finger and pretending to glare. "Don’t you go trying to guilt me, Mr. Knight sir," I said, with a half-hearted curtsy.
"I would never," he said, with a laugh as he grabbed my hand and held it up to his lips. "At least not for about ten years or so."
I shivered slightly at the sensation of his lips gently touching the top of my hand.
The corners of his lips upturned in a smile, a smile that went all the way up to his twinkling brown eyes. I couldn’t help but return the smile.
He let my hand lower slightly and loosened his grip, but I didn’t move my hand. I so didn’t want to. My eyes looked to his for a moment, then I felt a flush of uncomfortable heat as I looked away. He let my hand drop then, and let out an awkward cough.