Within the Cards

by Donna Altman

  “You can leave anytime you get ready.” I scolded her. She continued to laugh.

  “Oh have I hurt your little vamp feelings?” She said through her laughter.

  “I don’t know why you’re laughing. This news came from one of your types." I informed her.

  “She is not my kind.” Her tone changed to anger.

  “Aren’t you part witch?” I smirked as I got up and walked to the closet.

  I knew I could be pushing my luck. Ellie’s family wouldn’t stand for other immortals to refer to them as hybrid witches or hybrid vampires. They were witchyres, and they felt they were of higher standards than both of these races.

  “Don’t push me vamp boy.” She snarled. “We ended the witch that I came from a long time ago. She was weak, and I damned her to hell along with that pathetic excuse for a grandfather vamp of mine.” She hissed as she moved to the side of the bed. I turned to look at her.

  “You think your grandmother was weak because she loved your grandfather? You have no idea Ellie. Love is the strongest part of a human and an immortal. Without love, you’re just full of hate; useless hate like you have now. Not like the Ellie, you use to be” I turned away from her again and pulled my shirt off.

  “Love makes you weak. It is nothing more than a human word that has no meaning for my people. If you vamps wouldn't try so hard to blend in with your food you would see that this love you’re talking about is for fools to believe.” She hissed. Ellie’s words were strong, but there was something different about her.

  “You sound like your sisters, Ellie. Hmmm. So how was your visit to see your sisters?” Remembering she was going to see them at our last conversation.

  “I saw Dee. She has one of your kind in the dungeon. He is so full of lust, damn moronic vamp.” She scolded as she rolled her eyes and wondered what I was doing.

  “Ellie, can’t you see I’m not like the others. Have I lusted for you once?” I asked as I turned around holding a new shirt.

  She looked at me strangely. Her thoughts were trying to rewind the last week. My feelings for Ellie were nothing but love. I wanted to make love to her, but never was it just lust for sexual pleasure. Of course, the way Ellie looked at my shirtless body; she had lust in her mind. She saw what I was thinking as I put on the new shirt. Ellie realized I knew what she was thinking and turned her thoughts to something different.

  Ellie's look changed. I knew she was reviewing the conversation she had with her sister Dee. She knew I was telling the truth. I remembered what Anesidora said. She knew. Dee told her that they erased her memory. I couldn’t believe the next thoughts she had. She felt drawn to me, and she didn’t hate me. The change I noticed in her was real. She was trying hard not to let me know. I began to laugh.

  “Ellie, I love you. Please just think about it. I have never acted like other vampires. I am a part of you. That’s why you are so drawn to me.” I pleaded my case to her.

  “You love me, but you laugh at me.” She stated as she turned away from me.

  She ran her fingers through her hair. As her hand moved through the black tresses, her expression showed her confusion. She got up from the bed and walked toward the window. As she passed me, her hand lightly grazed mine. I could feel the electrical vibrations of her touch. She turned and looked at her hand. She had felt it too. She reached and touched my arm then pulled her hand away from me quickly and stepped back. Again, she felt stunned at the conduction of electricity between our bodies.

  Witchyres never showed fear but in Ellie’s eyes, I saw what she felt. Her thoughts were searching for a reason why. She turned and looked in the distance through the window. I walked toward her. She held her hand up to motion me to stop, but I couldn’t. With her back to me, I pushed my body against hers. I could feel her shoulder blades pushing against my chest. I anticipated her violent response to thrust me backward, but it didn’t come. I placed both of my hands on her shoulders and felt the tension. She wasn’t familiar with the touch of love. I wanted to push her hair away from her neck and replace it with my lips. I felt sparks from the electrical intentions between us.

  She relaxed the tension in her body as I pulled her tightly against me. Wrapping my arms around her chest, I held her. I didn’t force myself on her any further. She was scared of the feeling she had, and I didn’t want to reverse the progress we had made.

  “Ellie, I love you. I would never hurt you. Would you please trust me, please listen to me and try to remember.” I softly begged as I whispered in her ear. She turned toward me. Our faces were no more that inches apart. I could smell the sweet breath she exhaled. I wanted to kiss her with every cell in my cold, physical form. Closing my eyes, I swallowed hard when her thoughts interrupted my need to be closer to her.

  “I need to know the truth. Dee told me about erasing my memory. Help me remember.” Her tone had changed. Her angelic voice was nothing more than a whisper.

  “The old witch told me about a spell that had to be cast. It will repair your memory. But Ellie, it has to be done by your grandmother.” I responded.

  “I know, but I don’t understand how. I know of no spell that will bring her back from extinguishment. I don’t,” her voice paused, “wait, the book that Dee gave me.”

  “What book?” I asked as I back away from her sudden turn.

  “That’s it. That’s why she gave me the book. The old witch knew I had the book.” She moved toward the bed again. She picked up a large leather bound book that looked very old. The pages look worn from time and many usages. In gold on the front cover were the words I remembered Anesidora talking about when she told me that Ellie would know how. I took the book from Ellie and laid it on the bed where Ellie and I both sat now. She looked at me, and I could still see the fear of uncertainty in her eyes.

  “Trust me, Ellie. Please trust me.” I begged her. My eyes looked deep into the cold, gray eyes of the only person in the world that I loved. It was the first time, since she returned that I didn’t see the hatred or feel the glare of the razor sharp ice.

  Her eyes closed once, and I knew she agreed. We began our search for words neither of us knew, but they were somewhere in this large spell bound book. The book Dee gave Ellie, and the book Anesidora told me about during our meeting in the candle lit room at the back of a store that carried the name “Anesidora’.

  Chapter Fourteen

  THE MAJESTIC BOOK OF SPELLS

  Ellie and I spent hours looking through the book Dee gave her. We looked for a spell that would bring not just a person back from death, but also an immortal back from extinction. Why would I have thought this was going to be easy once Ellie was convinced she was my maker?

  This book held many spells that were similar, but we had to be precise. My eyes kept drifting to Ellie as she read. Here, we sat propped against the headboard of my bed holding a book that could bring happiness back to me, to us. My thoughts traveled back to a time when we laid in a bed somewhere in the past just as we were now. She was beautiful. I wanted to hold her, to kiss her. She started laughing. I knew she had been listening to my thoughts.

  “You’re so funny.” She laughed.

  “I’m going to have to learn to control my thoughts better, but it’s hard.” I returned.

  I tried to make my thoughts stop. I remember just a short while ago Ellie would get angry at my thoughts of our past.

  “Are you still scared I’m going to kill you seeing I’m your maker?” She laughed again as she pushed her shoulder against mine. Her laugh was infectious.

  “The thought had crossed my mind.” I smiled.

  “You know I thought you had gone crazy.” She laughed.

  “Yes, what was it you said ‘a vampire mental case’.” I smiled and pushed back against her shoulder.

  “You are kind of crazy, and you do smell too.” She laughed.

  “I think I remember you thinking I smell sweet.” I responded.

  “Hmmm, I can’t hide anything from you.” She continued to laugh.

&nbs
p; It was gratifying hearing Ellie's laugh. She was starting to sound like the Ellie of my past. She leaned over toward me and pushed me back. I could still feel the electricity from her touch.

  “Sorry, I guess I’m going to have to get use to that.” She spoke.

  “You never have to apologize to me, Ellie.” I responded. She smiled then touched my face. Her touch was warm and inviting. I missed the feel of her skin.

  “Daught, I don’t remember what we had together, so I don’t feel the same as you do. I will admit there is something about you that makes me want to be near you, but I don’t remember. I do want to know my past, and I do want to remember what you say we shared, but I have to find this spell and your thoughts are interrupting my search.” She again smiled at me.

  Need was in her eyes, but it was a need different from mine. She needed to know her past, and I just needed her to know me. She saw the hurt in my eyes, then grabbed a pillow and hit me with it. It was a playful hit but with her strength, it would have knocked out the normal human male. I began to laugh and agreed to continue the search.

  We continued throughout the night searching. Changing positions and each time, I could feel the electricity of her touch. Her thoughts confirmed she felt the same. I couldn’t help myself; I glanced at her often. She smiled knowing my thoughts were far from this majestic book. They were on her.

  “Daught, I think I found it.” She said with excitement as she sat up in the middle of the bed.

  “Let me see.” I pulled the book from her. She moved closer to me looking over my left shoulder. She then rested her chin on it. I took a deep breath and engulfed her scent. She knew she was driving me crazy; it was a mixture of the old and new Ellie. As hard as it was, I concentrated on the book.

  The passage read: Reliving immortality.

  While the one in need must speak these words, but only on the day when the moon is blue and at the witching hour. Keep the one you request in your thoughts, and they will appear by the last chime of the enchanted hour.

  SPELL CHANT

  Gather all spirits from the past,

  come back to the living, I beg you last.

  The one in my thoughts must shall ye bring,

  back to the living and make life ring.

  Come back to make your reality known,

  and repair your immortality and claim your throne.

  “The blue moon?” I shouted. I jumped up from the bed that Ellie and I had been sharing for most of the night. I charged toward the desk and ruffled through the drawers. I was looking for the small calendar that some students passed out during registration, but I couldn’t find it. I turned on the laptop that sat on the desk.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Googling the blue moon,” I answered. She got up and came near me. I could feel her next to me. My body went numb. I wanted this minute to freeze and remain forever.

  “What?” she had no idea what I was saying.

  “I'm looking for the moon phases for this month.” I told her.

  “Why do you look on that?” she questioned.

  “If you don’t know the answer to something, you can search for it on the computer.” I told her.

  “You vamps are so mortal.” She laughed and popped the back of my head.

  “Do you have a better idea?” I stopped myself.

  Before I went any farther, I stopped and smiled. It had been far too long since I had been around Ellie. I had forgotten that she didn’t need a machine to tell her something like the moon phases. She was half witch. She lived by the moon and hunted by its phases. She walked to the window and looked at the stars.

  “The next true blue moon will be during the winter solstice.” She smiled. I looked at the computer, but it said the blue moon would be at the end of this month.

  “Your Google doesn’t know everything. The true blue moon isn’t what humans who run that machine you're looking at think. A blue moon is only when there are more than three full moons in a season. This is every rare. Have you ever heard of the phrase ‘once in a blue moon’?” She asked.

  “Of course, I’ve heard of it.” I replied. She smiled and shook her head. It was nice to see a small trace of the old Ellie in her smile.

  “I trust you,” I said as I rolled my eyes.

  I watched her walk back to the bed and sit in the middle of it. I could tell she was extremely pleased with her knowledge. Now we had the spell, and we knew when to use it. All we had to do was wait. This would prove to be the hard part. I looked at Ellie. I didn’t think I could wait for three months. Seeing Ellie every day, being this close to her, I didn’t think I could stand not being able to touch her the way I wanted. It was hard not being able to love her the way I use too and not having her love me back the way the old Ellie had. She was reading my thoughts I knew from the look on her face what she was thinking. It was fear of not being able to be around me. Ellie wanted to be near me as much as I wanted to be near her. Part of my wish had come true, but I couldn’t bear to see her look so sad. She couldn’t say she loved me, but she wanted me to be near her.

  I moved to sit in front of her on this small bed. She was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed. I reached to touch her face, but then I pulled my hand back. I didn't want to push much harder, because I knew Ellie didn’t know the love we once shared. I laid my hand on my leg. She reached for it and pulled it to her face. The electricity flowed from her slightly warmer skin to my cold flesh. I didn't want to move my hand, but if I didn’t I would want more. I wanted to kiss her. The feeling of her smooth skin brought goose bumps to my already chilled body. I held my hand against her face. I froze, and I couldn’t move.

  “I’m sorry.” I bowed my head.

  “What? You don’t know what to do next?” She teased me. I looked back at her, not knowing what to say. She started laughing. I wasn't sure if she was making fun of me, or if she genuinely didn’t think I knew what to do.

  “You might need to Google it.” She said through her laughter. This made me smile. A part of me could feel the old Ellie was coming closer to the surface. However, I knew this wasn’t her. I wanted to make love to Ellie but not like this.

  “Ellie, I want you so bad, but I want it to be right.” I confessed.

  “Maybe you would rather I left so that Trish could come over.” She turned cold and pushed me away from her.

  “Please Ellie, don’t act like this. Would you really want to make love to me, not feeling the same way I do?” I asked.

  “You are confusing me. One minute you want to touch me, and the next minute you pull away.” She hissed at me.

  I knew she was starting to feel confused over my actions. I did want her, and she was the only one I wanted. I would never want this human named Trish. She could never compare to Ellie.

  I leaned back to her. Her body tensed as I placed my hand on her thigh. I didn’t know if she wanted me to continue, or if I should pull away, but then she sat up putting both of her hands on my face. She pulled me close to her. I could smell the sweet air she exhaled. The aroma filled my lungs and the endorphin of my urges sent shock waves throughout my body.

  “Are you sure, Ellie?” I asked.

  She never spoke a word, but her eyes told me everything I needed to know. As she lay back, my body followed hers. Her fingers ran through my hair. She pulled me closer until our lips were one. The last ten decades were as if they never existed. The taste of her lips was still as sweet as the first time I tasted them. The rest of the night was eternal bliss.

  Chapter Fifteen

  WHAT HAVE I DONE?

  Ellie was lying in the bed next to me, and she gently caressed my chest. I kissed the top of her head as she looked up at me with a smile. The look she gave me was that of the old Ellie. I wondered if making love to her had made her remember what we shared. Then I noticed the change in her smile. She got up from the bed and began to put on her clothes.

  “Ellie, where are you going?” I asked.

  “You don�
�t want me. You want the pathetic person I use to be. I had sex with you to prove to myself that you wanted me, but I was wrong. All you want is the Ellie I use to be. I’m not her.” She hissed at me.

  “Ellie, I love you. The old you or the new you, I don’t care. I just want you.” I pleaded as I sat on the side of the bed.

  “Listen Daught, I need some space. I’m not the Ellie you knew. This is who I am. The spell may not work, and you're looking forward to someone that may never be again. I can’t be her.” She felt hurt and angry at the same time. Her eyes were not the bright gray that I loved. They were flat and gloomy. She removed her eyes from my view. She could no longer look at me. She looked down at the floor and then at the window. I felt her hesitate. I knew she didn’t want to leave, but she was scared to stay.

  “You’re wrong, Ellie. I don’t care if the spell works. Just having you here, no matter what happens, that's all I want.” I pleaded. I stood up and tried to wrap my arms around her, but she pushed me away. Ellie felt confused of what her existence was supposed to be. She wouldn’t stop getting dressed. I couldn’t stop her.

  “Look deep in your heart, Daught. You will always compare me to her. I can’t promise you anything. Just give me some time.” She insisted and turned away from me. She moved toward the door, but I wasn’t fast enough to stop her before she vanished.

  What had I done? How had I let this happen? Last night was perfect. I knew I wanted Ellie. I wanted her badly, but I knew we weren’t ready for last night. I should have stopped, but I was weak when it came to her. I fell on the bed and stared at the ceiling. I knew I had to find her. I pulled my clothes on and headed toward her dorm building.