by Apryl Baker
I’m here, Blue. You can do this. Saidie needs you.
Micah’s right. I grasp my mother’s hand, and something happens, something I wasn’t expecting. Memories flood my field of vision. Memories of me as a baby, of me growing up, of Jason. Of our family. Laughter, tears, and sheer joy. My mother’s memories. I let go of her hand and back away. I don’t know if I can do this.
“Alex, is something wrong?”
Alex, you have to do it.
I know, it’s just seeing that…
Makes you remember how much she loves you.
No, it makes me remember how much she hurt me.
And that is the crux of it. My mother hurt me more than anyone ever has. I don’t know how to get past it and forgive her.
“Chere, I can only keep her still for so long.”
Aleric snaps me out of my mental conversation and back to the situation at hand. Saidie isn’t struggling, but anything could set her off. We need to do this while she’s semi-calm. I take my mother’s hand again and fight against the memories that try to swim back up.
“Do you remember the spell?” Alesha gives my hand a squeeze.
It’s a simple spell, really. I will just show her what I am seeing. She’ll be able to use the mirror to mimic my own sight. Mirrors are typically used for scrying or for gaining a peek into the past or the future. We are going to use it to do exactly what it was meant to do, show us a reflection. As soon as I cast the spell and Alesha swallows the Seer’s potion, as I dubbed it, she’ll be able to lay hands on Saidie and help her.
That’s the plan, anyway.
It takes me a minute to focus my newfound aura-seeing abilities to pick out all the nastiness attacking Saidie’s aura. More than I remember have gathered in a dense fog around her. They are hammering away at her relentlessly. Her own aura has gotten weaker, thinner. As soon as the first one makes the tiniest crack, we’ve lost her. Micah’s right. I have to do this.
“Eyes of the past, eyes of the future, gather near to me so I can show this woman what I see.”
I close my eyes and open my magic to allow the Elements to enter my soul. Spirit rushes in and stokes the fires of Air, the element that carries our wishes on its back through all the other elements. They come together, and I feel the snap of power as they fall into place within me.
“Drink it now, Mom.”
The power building inside me grows, and soon it’s going to need an outlet, an outlet that is standing there, clutching my hand. Her own magic makes it feel like I’m holding a live wire. It tries to reach out and embrace my own, but I slap it back. No. It is there to do what I want it to do. Nothing else.
“Spirit, flee now from me and show her what I see!”
I unleash all my power into her, guided by spirit, and open my eyes, focusing on the horde of spirits surrounding my friend and pushing all that knowledge into my mother.
She gasps when my magic hits her. She staggers under its force, not expecting the onslaught. I don’t know how to tame it or gentle its effect. Not sure I want to either. She deserves a little of this.
Her hand lets go of mine, and I sway, but I brace my legs, refusing to fall. I will not show weakness in front of her or my family. My magic demands I stand tall, wield it with the force of my ancestors.
Another force gathers around us, something dark, something vile and evil. I can smell it. Rot and decay. We had cast no circle to protect us. Jason and Sabien come to stand on either side of me, and together, we combine our magic as he’d taught us and taste the power intruding upon our spelling.
Laughter floats through the air as sweat beads my mother’s forehead. I can’t hear what she’s saying; my focus is on the thing trying to get around the shield we’ve pulled around us all. It’s determined to break through, to get at…Saidie?
The necromancer. I know it. But how can she be here? She’s using a witch’s magic, tinged with her own dark powers. Maybe a necromancer is a form of a witch? Can they use spells and potions? But she’d been born a witch. That must be how she’s doing this. One thing is certain. This evil little hag is getting nowhere near my friend. I redouble my efforts, drawing power from both Jason and Sabien, and send it at her with the force of a hurricane.
There’s a crack like thunder, and she’s gone. What the hell? How did she get in here? Past all Uncle Sabien’s wards? The same question is mirrored in his expression, but Alesha’s cry of pain pulls us back to her.
She’s on her knees, both hands wrapped around Saidie’s upper arms, and instead of those things going back through the hole they came through, they’re now attacking my mother. My first instinct is to help her, but Uncle Sabien pushes me back before I can. He goes over and places his hands on his sister’s shoulders, and Jason and I watch them work.
It’s amazing. Their auras swirl together, and the longer I look, the easier it is to make out the energy around them that constitutes their individual magics. Sabien’s is a bright blue, while Alesha’s is a darker red, tinged with deep oranges. They twine together like old friends and spread out, attacking the souls in the mist, pushing them toward the open crack of ether.
“Do you see this?” I whisper.
“No, but I can feel it.” Jason sounds almost reverent.
“Let me show you.” I take his hand and show him what I see using the same spell. Only I don’t need the Sight potion to do this. He’s seeing through me and not on his own. His gasp of wonder matches my own. I’ve never seen anything like this.
“It’s beautiful.” He holds tighter to my hand, as if afraid he’ll lose what he’s seeing. “Think we’ll be able to do that one day, Sis?”
“I hope so.” And I do. The bond Alesha and Sabien have is beautiful. They’re stronger together, just like me and Jase. It’s not a Blackburne thing. It’s a sibling thing. All it takes is love, and that’s one thing we all have in common. We love our siblings. I’d do anything to protect Jase, and he me. Just watching them, you can tell my mom and my uncle feel the same way about each other.
Just when I think they won’t be able to do it, the creatures tormenting Saidie give this unearthly howl loud enough to pierce eardrums, but they can’t stop Alesha and Sabien from herding them through the open fissure in the ether, the area between planes where souls wander until they find where they need to be. They go toward the opening like a pack of angry beasts, screaming and kicking all the way, denied the power they fed from. It looks like some CGI masterpiece as the mist thickens, and then dives for the open crack, disappearing into nothing.
And still Alesha isn’t done. She calls to the Earth, and I feel the force of the dirt beneath us rise to meet her gentle coaxing and wrap around Saidie. Spirit cements the dirt and closes the wounds completely. Why did she use the essence of Earth as putty? It makes no sense. Spirit should have been all that was needed.
The energy calms and settles back into its prospective owners, and Sabien falls to his knees, worn out. Magic isn’t like what you see on TV. I binge watched Charmed on Netflix. Magic is nothing like what those sisters do. It’s hard, and it’s draining. Yes, we use potions the way they do, but to harness magic itself, it takes more out of us than we can easily put back. Sometimes it can take days to recover.
“You’re going to need to carry her upstairs, Jase. Uncle Sabien isn’t going to be able to.”
“I know.” Resigned, he goes and picks her up, carrying her out. Micah comes in and helps Sabien. They’ll be upstairs for a while. This wasn’t an easy process a simple nap can take care of. It drained them. Which means the rest of us are going to have to be on guard duty. I have no idea how the necromancer breached the house’s defenses, so it’s going to be a long night.
“You can put Saidie in my room, Aleric.” She’s curled up against him, sobbing softly. I hope we got to her in time and that her mind isn’t gone or tainted. Only time will tell. She needs to rest.
Leaving Aleric to follow me, I collapse against Luka, and together we all go upstairs. Slightly afraid of what the n
ight will bring.
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Late evening turns into full-on night. Jason paces in the front room, and it’s making all our wolves nervous. Micah has already told him to knock it off several times, and he has, but it only lasts a few minutes before he’s back up. The pack is roaming in the general area, guarding both our house and my dad’s. I don’t think the necromancer or her cronies will go after him or Emma, but I’m not going to take that chance.
Aleric hasn’t left Saidie. Luka has been upstairs with him for the last few hours. I didn’t protest even though I want him with me. He needs to talk to his brother. If it were me and I saw my brother after thinking he was dead for God knows how many years, there wouldn’t be anything that could keep me away from him.
Conner hasn’t left his post by the windows. He’s been quiet since he got here, and his eyes keep unfocusing, which means he’s having visions. When he’s ready to tell us, he will. We’ve learned to leave him alone when he gets in these moods.
Bree is on her phone, talking to various family members, anyone who knows anything about necromancers and death magic.
Me? I’m curled up in the corner of the couch doing my best not to let the old Alex rear her ugly head, the one who spent all those years hiding, afraid of her own her shadow. Sometimes, despite my best efforts, I wonder if I am still in the mental institution, lost in a place I created in my own head. I mean, in what world outside a made-up one do witches, vampires, shifters, and necromancers exist? I can give Conner the whole psychic thing. That’s proven. But the rest of it? It’s a hard one to buy.
Probably from being terrified half my life, I was crazy. My family abandoned me. First my mom, and then Emma and Dad shipped me off to Compton Academy when my problems got to be too much to handle. Maybe my fear of abandonment is what brought on this whole mass hallucination. I invented people who would never leave me, people who would love me enough to fight for me.
It’s the only fear I have left, one I keep buried. I don’t want anyone, not even Micah, knowing how scared and messed up I still am. I’ve learned how to block him out enough to keep this particular fear hidden. If he even suspected I thought like that, he’d go nuts trying to reassure me.
I get up and head toward the kitchen. Sitting here dwelling isn’t doing me a bit of good, and if I don’t get off this train of thought, Micah will eventually hear me.
“Sis?” Jase stops pacing long enough to stare me down.
“Just going to grab a bottle of water from the fridge.”
He nods and resumes pacing.
The kitchen is at the back of the house. It’s huge. Sabien had it redone when he moved back to Jacob’s Fork a few months ago. It’s the one room in the house I love. I’ve always wanted a big kitchen. To me, the heart of the home is in the kitchen. It’s where you cook the meals for your family, where people sit around and talk while you cook, or do your homework. I used to sit at the kitchen table drawing while my mom baked apple pies. She’d listen to me tell these grand adventures while she worked. It’s one of the best memories I have of her.
The fridge yields no cold water. Sabien is bad about forgetting to restock. Just like I thought, I find a brand new, unopened case of water in the pantry. Lugging it over, I set to work restocking the bottom drawers. Even though I haven’t been here a lot lately, I know how much water he drinks. The man can drink his weight in the stuff.
I lean against the island and take a sip of hot water. Exhaustion eats away at me. I know Jase is tired too. We both used a lot of magic today, and while we aren’t passed out cold, it’s still tired us out. Add in, I’m still sore from my first shift and then multiple forced shifts, and I could easily crawl into bed and sleep for days.
A scratching noise makes me tilt my head and listen. It’s soft, even gentle. Did Bear, my Uncle’s overweight gray Persian, go outside? I haven’t seen him at all today, come to think of it. He’s usually running headfirst at me as soon as I walk through the door. I bet the silly thing went out and everyone forgot about him.
Opening the back door, I check the porch, but he’s not there. “Bear? Here, kitty, kitty! Bear, come on, kitty.” I walk to the edge of the porch and look around in the rose bushes. Sometimes, he likes to hide in there. “Bear, I don’t have all night. Get your butt in here!”
A scent hits my nose and I freeze. Rot and decay. The stench of the dead. I slowly back away, but it’s too late. I didn’t see the shadows lurking around the edge of the house. It’s a wraparound porch, and I should have checked, but I didn’t. The thing that lumbers toward me is legit the ugliest thing I have ever laid eyes on. Its flesh is all but gone in places, the gray and black teeth open in a silent scream. My lungs freeze, unable to pull precious air into them as the thing stumbles toward me, arms outstretched. My old nightmares flood my vision, of teeth snarling and snapping, of red rivers of blood, and panic, unable to move to do anything to save myself or my mom. The closer it gets, the more my panic rises.
My wolf starts stretching under my skin, pacing back and forth, growling, but it only intensifies the memories of my nightmares. I’m back there, locked in that hellish world. All night, the panic has been closing in on me, and seeing this thing has pushed it over the edge.
The beast inside me takes over, and I watch from a distant place as she grabs the thing and shakes it. It’s my hands ripping into it, tearing it into pieces, but it is her doing it. She came out to protect us, and for that I’m grateful, but at the same time, I want to hide, to disappear and never see these ugly things again. To see any of it.
More of them are shuffling toward the house. Toward Luka, Jason, and Micah. My protective instincts finally kick in and force the panic away.
“Alex?” I hear Jason shouting about the same time Micah appears next to me.
“What the hell…”
Yeah, it’s a small army of zombies coming straight for the house.
“You okay?” He glances down at my now messy jeans and shirt. I’m covered in goo. My wolf likes to shred things.
“I’m good. Let’s get inside and figure out a way to stop these things.”
We close and lock the door, but I’m not sure it’ll do much good. That many coming at us might very well break down the doors or shatter the windows.
“What’s wrong?” Jason asks as soon as I see him. “I smelled…what happened to you?”
“Zombies.”
“Zombies?” He frowns. Accepting all this supernatural stuff has been even harder for him than it has for me. At least my night terrors prepared me. Jase got thrown into the frying pan with no warning. He’s adapting, but it’s still difficult for him.
“I’m texting Dex. He’s in charge while Ethan is in wolf form. He’ll get the word to the pack to head here.” Micah’s fingers are move rapidly over his phone. “We need to get upstairs. I think we might stand a better chance of fending them off from there than we do down here. At least to get to us, they have to come up the stairs.”
I nod and work to control my breathing. Now that I’m back inside and safe, it’s trying to overwhelm me. Micah finally looks at me, really looks at me. It takes him two strides to reach me, and as soon as he hugs me, the calm that he brings to my soul settles over my skin. I can breathe for the first time since my mom freaked out over me being some kind of witch cyphon and her obvious fear that her father knew who I was. I remember every story Uncle Sabien told us, how their father murdered his own children if they didn’t possess any signs of either magic or the lupine gene. He and my mom had run away because they were afraid my grandfather would force her to bear a child. The man is evil, and the thought of him getting anywhere near me is terrifying.
“It’s okay, Blue. You’re not alone. We’re all here, and no one’s touching you. I promise.”
“Sis?” Jason whispers next to my ear. “It’s okay. Those things aren’t getting in.”
Neither Micah nor I correct him on his suspicions. Instead, we head upstairs, Bree and Conne
r trailing.
Luka is my first and only thought as soon as my feet hit the top of the stairs. My room is right down the hall. I don’t take two steps before the door is open and he’s poking his head out, those beautiful green eyes smiling at me. At least until he sees my face, and then he’s right there, sweeping me into his arms. “What is wrong, Munya?”
“Zombies.” Bree moves past us and into my room.
“Why did you no call me?” Luka asks, eyeballing my now nasty clothes. “I did no hear zombies.”
“It was fast.” Micah rubs his arms, cold. “I heard her panic, and by the time I hit the back porch, she’d already decimated three. There’s too many for us, even if we do shift. We’d be overrun. I texted Dex to get word to Ethan to get his ass here, like, yesterday.”
Luka’s arms tighten around me, and I snuggle in deeper, needing to feel him. To know he’s safe and protected from the things that are now starting to bang on the walls downstairs. The windows are double paned to help with all the wind storms we get here in the mountains, so they’re stronger than the average window, but I’m not sure how long they’ll last.
“How’s Saidie?”
“She is no good, Munya. She keeps…” He frowns, searching for the right words. “Argue in her sleep.”
“Arguing?” I’m not sure what he means.
He lets out a frustrated sigh. “Come, you see.”
The lights are on when I enter the room Uncle Sabien dubbed as mine. Saidie is tossing and turning on the bed. She does, in fact, sound like she’s arguing with someone, but it’s in a language I don’t understand. Aleric is standing guard over her, like he doesn’t trust any of us to get near her. He’d better get over that quick. She and I spend most of our time together. Bree and I are good friends, sure, but we aren’t as close as Saidie and I. Saidie is the sister I never had. If Aleric thinks he’s keeping her away from me, he and I are gonna have words, vampire or not.
“Easy, Munya.” Luka wraps his arms around me, sensing my growing anger. “He is only keeping her safe.”