Mark of the Witch (Boston Witches)

by Jessica Gibson

  Jilly smiled. She could see why they were friends with William; she would describe him the same way. “Do you think they’ll like me?” she asked, suddenly feeling kind of awkward about meeting them.

  William laughed. “Of course they will. What’s not to like? Besides, they’ve seen me alone for over a hundred years; they’ll just be happy to see me together with someone.”

  Jilly threw a pillow at him. “Thanks for that,” she said wryly. “Are you really not worried?” she asked seriously.

  He sobered. “I’m wary of the situation, but no, I’m not worried. I’ve handled Sabine in the past, Jilly. I won’t let anything happen to you or Caroline. Plus, we’ll have Kat and Nik to help now. Rest easy, we’ve got it covered.” Jilly tried to smile, but she ended up at a sort of grimace instead. William hugged her close. “Trust in me, Jilly. I will never let you down.”

  William walked Jilly to her door and kissed her goodnight. He arched a brow in silent question. Jilly smiled. “I’m going in alone tonight,” she said, and instantly regretted it.

  “I’m right across the hall if you need me.” His tone held an invitation that his words didn’t speak.

  Jilly kissed him one last time and closed the door behind her before she could change her mind. She went into the bathroom and brushed her teeth and washed her face. She was so tired, she could barely keep her eyes open on the way to the bed. She was out like a light in seconds flat.

  She opened her eyes and she was in Sabine’s room again. William was lying next to her on the bed, gently stroking her leg. When she looked down, she discovered she was only dressed in a sheet again. Wonderful, she thought as she pulled the sheet up higher.

  She had a sudden thought. “William, do you love me?”

  William looked up and smiled. “Of course I do, my darling. What would make you ask such a question?”

  Jilly wanted to vomit. That was so not the answer she wanted him to give. She shook her head and turned over on her side, not willing to look at him right now. That was a mistake; he began to kiss upwards from her toes to her ears. Her mind tried to tell her this wasn’t really happening, but her body won out. She rolled over onto her back again and pulled him on top of her. She couldn’t get enough of his mouth on hers. The taste of him was like heaven.

  “I love you,” she whispered as their bodies joined together as one.

  “Sabine” he called out to her at the height of his passion.

  A tear slipped down her cheek and she turned away, willing herself to wake up.

  Ten minutes later, she was still very much in the dream lying next to William, both of them spent and panting. “That was amazing, my love,” he whispered into her hair. Jilly just nodded, afraid that if she spoke her voice would betray her. “You make me so happy, darling.”

  Jilly blinked, and everything was black. She heard Sabine laughing in the darkness. “Mine.”

  She woke feeling rested despite her nighttime antics and shuffled into the bathroom to shower. Emerging from her room thirty minutes later, she walked down to the kitchen in search of coffee. She found William and Caroline already there. William looked up and smiled when she walked in, and he handed her a big mug of coffee. She smiled back at him over the cup and nodded her thanks as she took a swig of it. She instantly felt happier; just the taste of coffee in the morning makes everything better. She plopped down at the table and drank her coffee in silence for a while, the next week’s events weighing on her mind. Caroline could feel the undercurrent of tension in the air, and quietly excused herself and went upstairs.

  “I hope we didn’t scare her away,” William said as he grabbed a few bagels from the fridge.

  “I’m sure she just wants to give us time to plan. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”

  “Do you want yours toasted?” He gestured to the bagel in his hand.

  “Sure, and grab the cream cheese too, please. So, how are we going to do this today? Are we going to go ahead with the meeting as scheduled?”

  “I don’t see any way around it. Sabine isn’t going to take no for an answer this time, especially since she seems to be afraid of whoever is after you.”

  “We should probably start by memorizing the spell.”

  Jilly grabbed the grimoire and brought it back to the table. She had tucked the loose pages into the cover. When she opened it, she saw that the pages were no longer loose; the book had repaired itself overnight. She flipped to the right page, and they both sat quietly committing the spell to memory while they finished their breakfast. Once they were finished, they quizzed each other to make sure they had gotten it all correct.

  “Ok, now I think we should probably practice doing spells together,” William said as he got up and walked over to the open area by the back door, motioning her to follow. He saw the nervousness in Jilly’s eyes. “Don’t worry, Jilly, this is the fun part.”

  She walked over next to him and grabbed his hand tightly. The glow started immediately at their joined hands and quickly moved up their arms. Soon their entire bodies were glowing incandescently and they decided to try their first spell. Jilly enjoyed the warm feeling that their joined magic caused.

  They chose an easier spell to start with, and they easily put up a protective bubble around themselves. Jilly yelled for Caroline to come down so they could test the effectiveness of the spell.

  Caroline appeared at the top of the stairs a few seconds later. “What’s up, guys?” she asked, sounding slightly out of breath.

  Jilly smiled at her and gestured to the bubble with her free hand. “We’re trying to unite our magic; do you think you can maybe throw some stuff at us to see how strong the spell is?”

  Caroline smiled wickedly. “What should I throw?”

  William answered this time. “Start small and work your way up to something big, or even better, a knife.”

  For five minutes Caroline threw just about everything she could get her hands on at them, including a few kitchen knives. Nothing reached them, the spell was so strong; the bubble didn’t even flicker once during the assault. For the next hour, they tried more complicated spells together while Caroline tried her hardest to break them.

  Finally Jilly and William sat down at the table, surprisingly not tired from the amount of magic they had just done.

  Reading her expression, William turned to her. “I think it must have something to do with uniting our magic. It seems to protect us from fatigue as well as strengthening the overall spells. We should probably eat just in case.”

  Agreeing with him, Jilly went over and made them some sandwiches and grabbed a few Cokes from the fridge.

  Caroline, who had been sitting quietly, finally spoke. “That was probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. The way you both lit up like that it almost hurt my eyes to look at you, it was so bright.” She turned to face her sister. “Please promise me you’ll be safe when the time comes. Don’t take any unnecessary risks.” She hugged them both tightly and ran up the stairs, the tears that were threatening to fall finally breaking loose.

  “I hate that she’s so worried,” Jilly said, chewing on her lip.

  “I know, I do too, but it’s not as though you caused this to happen. Come and sit on the porch with me.” William stood and pulled her to her feet.

  They sat on the bench against the house enjoying the silence. He pulled her close and put his arm around her and she snuggled into him with a sigh.

  “This is nice. I wish every day could be like this,” she said quietly.

  “I do too. After all of this is over, we’ll make it happen.”

  Jilly tried not to think about the dream she’d had, but it kept popping into her head. William noticed her shift in attitude. “What’s wrong?”

  “I had another dream last night,” she said, looking down at her hands.

  He looked confused for a moment, but then it hit him what she meant. “I’m sorry. I wish I could make them stop.”

  “I know you do. It’s not your fault. It
’s just hard to be in another person’s body. And it was hard to hear you say you love her and call out her name instead of mine.” She held up a hand when he started to talk. “You didn’t know me then, William; I don’t blame you for this. I blame Sabine, and I intend to pay her pack for this when we finally meet.”

  He kissed her and pulled her in close, enjoying the feel of her lips against his own.

  Caroline was upstairs in her room, trying not to worry about what was coming. She hated that she couldn’t help her sister. She lay on her bed and tried to relax; she was asleep in no time.

  She opened her eyes and she was in a forest full of flowers and trees, and there was a river flowing off to the right. She looked down, and she was wearing a lavender silk gown that hugged every curve on her body. What’s this all about? she wondered to herself as she walked around a bit, looking for signs of life.

  “Caroline,” the voice from her previous dream whispered to her. “You’ve come at last, my love.”

  Caroline felt a sense of overwhelming peace and happiness radiate through her entire being. “Where are you?” she called out.

  “Over here,” the voice whispered.

  She followed the voice until she came to a meadow filled with flowers. Standing in the middle of the flowers was the most attractive man she had ever seen. She felt an overwhelming desire to run to him.

  “Come to me my love.” His voice floated across the air, caressing Caroline’s ears.

  She hesitated a moment longer and then broke out into a run across the meadow. He seemed to float toward her as she ran, and finally they were in each other’s arms, and everything was right with the world.

  She pulled away slightly, wanted to look at him more closely. He really was beautiful; dark wavy hair and bright blue eyes, every girl’s fantasy.

  “Who are you?” she whispered.

  He kissed her lips softly and whispered, “I think you know who I am.”

  Caroline blinked and was back in her own bed, feeling very confused.

  Chapter 8

  William woke Jilly up early the next morning to tell her he was off to pick up Nikolai and Katya.

  “Can I come?” she asked.

  He frowned slightly. “You know you can’t, darling. It’s too dangerous with what’s going on. We agreed that you’d stay in until everything’s over.”

  Jilly sighed, “I know, I know. I just thought I’d try.” She pulled his face down to hers for a quick kiss. “Hurry back,” she said with a wave as he walked out of her room.

  She rolled back over and tried to go back to sleep. Sleep eluded her, so she got up and showered. While she was under the hot spray, she thought about the path her life had taken her on. Within the course of a week, she met the man of her dreams and his psycho ex-girlfriend, and she got her sister back. All in all, pretty good, minus the psycho chick on her tail.

  She got out and wrapped her hair up in a towel before wrapping herself up in one as well. She was just picking out her clothes when Caroline knocked on the door.

  “Hey, Jill, are you up?”

  “Yeah, come on in,” Jilly replied.

  Caroline came in and flopped down on the bed while Jilly finished getting dressed.

  “I had a weird dream last night.”

  Jilly froze and looked at her sister, afraid it was going to be like the ones she had been having. “What kind of dream?” she asked.

  “I was in this forest, and this amazingly handsome man was there. I felt like I knew him, and when I asked him who he was, he said I already knew the answer. What do you think it means?”

  Jilly shrugged. “I don’t know. Have you met this guy before?”

  “No, but I think he was in another dream I had.”

  “Maybe it’s nothing?” Jilly said hopefully.

  “Yeah, maybe,” Carline said, not feeling any better about the situation. “Why are you up so early?” she asked Jilly.

  “William’s off picking up his friends from the airport, and I couldn’t get back to sleep.”

  “Oh, right, I forgot they were coming. I’m glad they’ll be here; it makes me feel better knowing we aren’t alone with this.”

  Jilly smiled. “I feel exactly the same way. Come on, let’s go get some breakfast,” she said as she walked out into the hallway.

  Three hours later, William returned with Nikolai and Katya in tow. Nikolai was tall with sandy blond hair and brown eyes that spoke of kindness. Katya was a tiny thing; she barely reached Nikolai’s shoulders. She had long blond hair and sparkling blue eyes.

  Jilly and Caroline were practicing spells in the kitchen. “It helps to close your eyes when you’re learning. It makes casting so much easier. Once you master the spell, you won’t have to concentrate so much,” Jilly was saying to Caroline when the newcomers came in.

  William walked over and planted a kiss on Jilly’s cheek. “How’s the training going?” he asked.

  “It’s going ok,” Caroline responded before Jilly could say it was going great.

  Jilly shot her sister a look. “It’s going great. It takes time to learn these things, Caroline. You can’t expect that every spell is going to be easy.”

  Caroline groaned and went to grab a glass of water.

  “Ladies, this is Nikolai and his wife, Katya.”

  Jilly smiled warmly. “Thank you both for coming. I’ve heard a lot about you from William.”

  “It was our pleasure to come. It’s very nice to meet you both,” Nikolai said in a heavy Russian accent.

  “Where are you staying? We have plenty of room here.”

  “We have a house that we stay at when we come to Boston, but thank you,” Katya said with a smile.

  “I think tomorrow we should have a training day. I want everyone to be used to working together when we meet Sabine and whomever she’s working for,” Jilly said. Everyone nodded in agreement. “I’m sure you both are tired from your flight, so let’s meet first thing in the morning. We can use the open space behind my house.”

  “Great” William said. “Now, what should we eat for lunch?”

  Katya and Jilly were sitting on the back porch talking while the guys were watching something sports related in the living room. “So, tell me about William,” Jilly said.

  Katya laughed. “Don’t you already know him?”

  “I do, but I want to hear what you have to say. I’ve really only known him for less than a week. And during that time, his crazy ex has come after me, and I’ve found out that he and I are some kind of soul mates. So, I’d like to hear who he is to you.”

  “That’s fair enough I suppose,” Katya said with a laugh. “William is pretty much the sweetest man I’ve ever met. He goes out of his way to help people, perfect strangers most of the time. I love him completely. He’s the brother I never had.” She sighed wistfully. “I’ll never forget when we first met him in Russia. He was running from Sabine, and Nik found him hiding in a cave by our house, in the dead of winter, of course. Nik brought him to the house, and we realized he was amaranthine like us. We stayed together for fifty or so years. Loneliness is a part of life for the deathless; we tend to stay away from humans. It’s too hard to get close and then watch them die of old age.”

  Jilly cringed inwardly; that was what William was in store for with her. She hated that he was going to be alone after she inevitably died. It didn’t seem fair for him to be matched with a human.

  Katya saw the inner struggle Jilly was dealing with. “Do not worry for William; he is happy to have found you. I’ve never seen him like this in all the years I have known him.” Jilly smiled weakly. “William told me about the dreams you’ve been having. That can’t be easy for you.”

  Jilly shook her head. “It’s not. It really sucks, and I wish I could make them stop, but I don’t think it’s possible. I’ve looked through my grimoire and never found anything.”

  Katya nodded. “I wish there was something we could do for you, but Sabine is older than Nik and I by a few hundred years. I�
�m sure Will’s told you that our power increases with age.”

  “Yeah, he mentioned something to that effect. It’s fine, I’m dealing with it. I’m planning on paying her back for it when we meet.”

  Katya liked the fire in Jilly’s eyes. She could see exactly why William had fallen for her so quickly. “That’s the spirit. Use your anger to fuel you. Your magic will be stronger.”

  They sat in silence for a while, enjoying the quiet in the air.

  William knocked on Jilly’s door after he dropped off Nikolai and Katya. “Come in,” she said.

  He sat on the bed next to her. “Katya loves you,” he said with a grin.

  Jilly smiled. “Really?”

  “Of course she does, silly. Why wouldn’t she? You’re a keeper apparently.”

  Jilly playfully punched William’s arm, and he grabbed her before she could do much damage. She let out a yelp and he brought his mouth down to hers.

  “I’ve never felt this way before,” Jilly whispered. “It scares me a little.”

  He pulled her in closer, as though he could shield her from everything with his embrace. “Jilly, you’ll always be safe with me. Do not fear what you feel for me.”

  “It’s not you I’m afraid of; it’s just, this all has happened so suddenly. I never move this fast with anything. It took me years to decide to open my own salon with Emily. And my relationship with Caroline, you know how long that’s been an issue. I like to take my time and weigh out every possible scenario.”

  William smiled, but quickly masked it. “My darling, there’s no rush. I hope I haven’t made you feel rushed.” He frowned slightly.

  “No, no, you’ve been fine. The way I feel, I want to rush, I want to experience everything with you.” Her eyes narrowed seductively as she looked at him through her lashes.

  “We have time, Jilly,” he said firmly. “I’m not rushing anything with you. I want our first time together to not be tainted with fear. When this is all over we can explore all of our options.” He saw her face fall. “It’s not that I don’t want to; believe me, I do. I just want neither of us to think about Sabine.”