Blackwater

by Tara Brown

  I whisper, "The spell is still there. Momma cast the spell stopping her from leaving the grounds."

  Maria is roaming the grounds, touching everything she sees and marveling at her body. I roll my eyes and walk to where he is. I take the limp, cold hand of my dead sister in mine and feel the words come. They rise up like they're crawling out of me.

  "Mother earth and father god, come to me with love and light. Protect your child as I cast my will around her." Energy shoots from my hands into hers. Her skin warms slightly as I say it.

  "Lands of mine and my kin, erase the deeds and magic within, take the words and deed done by one whose heart is cruel and transfer them all to her."

  Energy and power shoot from the ground up my legs and into my hands. I feel my head snap back, as light shoots from my mouth and around the house. It makes a dome of light around the whole property. The dome lights up and sparkles like it's fizzling out. I'm instantly exhausted and hear a whisper inside of my mind about conserving my energies.

  The spell becomes a single ball of light that shoots off into the distance. I look at Whit. He grins, "Spooky."

  I laugh. He walks across the threshold and down the stairs.

  Chapter Twenty

  The mound of dirt she is under bothers me. He swears she needs to be buried, but I'm not convinced.

  "Three days," he whispers when he sees me eyeballing it.

  I shake my head, "She's gonna be pissed when she wakes up and finds herself in a shallow grave."

  He laughs, "Better than being dead."

  I look at him and wonder, "You don’t remember anything from before? The way it was before the Ari girl changed the time?"

  He shakes his head, "No. I've heard about them, the time changers. She must be half angel, especially if she's with the Roses."

  My brow lowers, "Angel?"

  His dark eyes flash, "If you only knew about the things out there. I've seen rogue killings so many times. The vampires are always clueless of the fact the Roses don't like what we are. As long as we kill the guilty and evil they don’t say anything, but rogue killing is frowned upon. They'll kill you, they have the right to. It's best to leave them alone and stay out of their path." He shakes his head, "I don't like that you're on their radar."

  I frown, "That must be how I evaded them before; I never rogue killed anyone except the old people in the cabin. I was always careful to kill evil people. I could feel them, like their sins made their blood different."

  He smirks, "It's meant to be that way. You aren’t meant to be killing innocents."

  I look at the mound of dirt, "What if she doesn’t like killing evil and wants innocents?"

  He lies on his back in the grass of the cemetery we found, "Not sure. What can we do? We have to keep her safe. We have to force her to feed the right way."

  I nod and watch him lying there, "You killed Ramón."

  "I did. I never said I was innocent of rogue killing. I try to keep it to a minimum. Besides he was a witch."

  I chew my lip and think on it, "I never saved him. I saved Tessa and Maria and Angie and Em but not him."

  He smiles and reaches for me, "You did your best. You only had one shot at fixing it."

  I smile at him and notice the strangest feelings for him. It's like I can't help but love him, like it grew since the last time we were alone. I look around at the tombs and headstones and wonder if it’s the death surrounding us. Is the morbidity of what's in the air making me hot? Does that happen to witch vamps? My love for him is increasing by the second. I'm about to grin and say something risqué but I hear footsteps.

  Maria walks up looking upset. "I've been looking all over the bayou for y'all."

  "What's wrong?" I ask.

  She holds her hands out, blood stains her white skin. "She killed me. She done killed me again."

  I frown, "How?"

  She shakes her head, "She came in the night and made me cut my own wrists. I think she has a claim on the body still, like she possessing me." Her bayou accent is so thick.

  "Are you a ghost?" I ask, before I realize she is solid and not in the bayou where she most likely died.

  She shakes her head again, "No. I died in the woods and then I woke and I'm this. My skin is burning and I could drink a lake dry. Feels like cotton's in my mouth." Her mannerisms are so different than my mother's were.

  I give Whit a sideways glance. He groans, "I knew it. I felt you hours ago. Shit."

  "She's a vampire?" I ask.

  His red face and annoyed look answer the question for him. He has me and Em and Tessa and Angie now. Angie and Em are in the dirt. He will be able to track us all, sense us all. I wonder if it's like a constant noise in his mind.

  He's up and dragging her away from the grave before I can say anything else. He seems grouchy about the whole thing.

  I get distracted by the night that's dark and thick. I can feel it brushing against me like a painter on a canvas. Something about the dank air is making me get lost in thought, forget about the other problems we have.

  A voice interrupts my thoughts, "Finally. I thought he'd never leave."

  I gasp when I see the handsome face of Marcus. I frown, "What are you doing here?"

  He grins and sits on the grass where I'm lying waiting for Em and Angie to wake up. He looks at the mounds of dirt and scoffs, "He is a brave man, four women to listen to at all times. That sounds rough." He speaks so refined like. His English accent is so opposite Whit's Scottish. I can hear the difference now. Marcus sounds like the queen does when she and her kin speak and Whit sounds like a rugged heathen.

  I furrow my brow, "How did you find me?"

  He grins at me and I can't stop staring at his lips, "Remember that little thing I got you to say?"

  I nod.

  "Well, when the switch happened I remembered you because we said those things to each other. Ari's little gift sends you back in time, but you never know what changed or happened. She sends you back blank unless a vampire compels you to remember."

  I shake my head, "Why? Why would you want to remember me?"

  His eyes light up. I'm lost in them, "You're a natural witch with vampire strength. You're blood can make me feel things I haven’t felt in a long time. You aren’t dead, you’re an unending supply of emotions." He smirks, "I have to admit I admire Whit for doing it. It’s smart, getting a witch to love you and changing her halfway. Not a lot of us would have thought of it."

  My stomach starts to feel funny. It’s already sensitive since I changed the other night. I don’t know what he means, and for whatever reason; I can't defy him in thought or action. I want to obey him.

  "What are you?" I ask.

  He grins, "Dracula."

  My brain works slowly, "Like the book?"

  He nods, "Like the book." He holds a hand out for me, "Now are you going to let me taste that blood of yours?"

  My hand is already moving towards his before he finishes the sentence. He takes my hand in his and licks up my wrist. I shudder from it. He kisses and bites in. Instantly I moan.

  The feeling of him sucking is intense. His lips are magic. My eyes are closed and my thighs are pressed together before I realize how shameful I'm being.

  He drags me to him, snuggling his body against mine. "That’s it, Lorelei. Let me have you," he speaks softly. I moan into his embrace as his fangs bite into my neck. He draws the blood and I nearly orgasm in his arms. "Did Whit make you wish anything before you changed?"

  I nod into his embrace and warmth.

  "What?"

  My eyes open with force. I mumble, "He asked me to love him forever."

  He laughs, "What a cheeky fucker," and suddenly I'm unaware of exactly what's going on. He's there one minute and then gone the next. His whisper hovers on the wind, "I'll come for you."

  I look around at the mist coating the graves and the dark bushes and overhanging trees.

  I'm panting and confused. I look around and then at my wrist, it did happen. It was real. My t
rembling hand brushes away the blood dampness on my throat as I stand on my wobbly legs. His effects on me are bizarre.

  "Lorelei!"

  I turn as an icy whisper blows across my face, "You get away from that one. You get far away."

  I see the twitchy ghostly image of Ramón and smile, "Who is he?"

  Ramón hovers over the ground in his ghost form, "Father of the vampires. He is one of the cursed. You need to stay away from him and them Roses. Grandmamma was wrong to call them, Cheri. They're bad news. They always got an agenda."

  I swallow and glance around the garden nervously, "What about Whit?"

  Ramón shakes his head, "He ain't bad, he's just tricky. Girl, go with your guts. What does it tell you? The magic gonna speak to you now but you gots to listen."

  I close my eyes and feel for it, "He's lying to me about something. I can feel it in his words. Something ain't all there." I open my eyes and Ramón is gone.

  The dirt shifts as a hand shoots from it. I leap down and brush it away from her face. I blow and drag her from the hole. She opens her eyes and brushes her face off, "You buried me in a damned hole? What's the matter with you?"

  I laugh, "You needed to change fully. You gotta be strong. You don’t have any magic to protect you."

  She frowns and looks around, "Uhm…are we in a graveyard?" She looks lost.

  I nod, "Yeah. Just gotta wait for Em to wake up and we can leave." I point to the mound of dirt she was laying next to. She grimaces, "You put her in a hole too?" Her voice breaks as she backs away.

  I grab her wrist and slide my fingernail along it, "Look. I'm not crazy."

  She looks at the black blood and screams.

  I pull her in, "It's the way you wanted things, trust me. You won't ever age or change. You get to be young and beautiful forever."

  She pulls back, black tears streak her cheeks, "What?"

  I drop my fangs, I have control because I remember. She screams again, but hers drop too. She touches them with her fingertips and screams louder. I cover her mouth but she bites me by accident. She gets a taste of my blood and shoves me down. She leaps at me in a ravenous snarl. I shove her off and shake my head.

  "This is gonna be real fun," I mutter and hold her at bay.

  Whit appears in the woods with Maria, who looks less than pleased. He grabs the Angie monster and holds her face to his, "Get the hunger under control. Stop acting like a savage."

  She goes limp in his arms and becomes a sobbing mess.

  "What did you do?" She curls into a ball on the ground, hugging herself. "I'm so hungry and thirsty."

  I look at Whit and the memory of the way I felt creeps back in. I forgot how shocking and horrid it was to change.

  I drop to my knees and lift her stained face. Her fangs hang from her wet plump lips. I smile sweetly, "I went through it all once. I got sent back in time, don't ask." I hold a hand up, "just trust me, don't ask. I saw you, you were married and had grandkids and seemed happy until you saw me. You was old and tired and sad. You was so mad at me for leaving you behind and letting you age. I still looked like this and you were seventy years old. You cried and I felt sick for you. Your dreams were gone; you spent your whole life as a wife and momma. When I got the chance to make you like me, I took it. I want you to be with me."

  The look in her eyes devastates me and I second-guess the choice I made. She swallows and looks at Whit, "You a vampire too?"

  He nods once.

  She looks at Maria and nods, "Your momma is one? I guess that makes sense."

  I laugh, "That’s my auntie Maria. My momma stole her body."

  Angie widens her green eyes.

  I shake my head, "You don’t wanna know that one either."

  She looks at the mound of dirt, "You killed your sister too? Made her like this?"

  I grip her arms and feel like bawling, "Yes."

  She shakes her head, "There ain't no going back is there?"

  I shake my head. She slumps and hugs her legs in tighter. Her black dress is a destroyed mess. She looks like a sixties nightmare.

  "Where do we go?" she whispers.

  I look at Whit, "Scotland?"

  He nods again, "We have to." He looks at the women around him and shakes his head.

  Em's hand pops out of the dirt and Whit sighs and grabs her hand.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  I run my hands along the wall of my bedroom. The feel of it makes me sick. I have still somehow lost everything, the daylight, my humanity, my trust in Whit. It's still crumbled away, and now I've infected Angie and Emily with the unhappiness I was plagued by.

  I walk out onto the deck and look out at the flagpole with the half-mast flag hanging from it.

  "You alright?" he asks softly.

  I turn and shake my head. His dark eyes see me, they always do.

  I bite my lip and watch his face. Even in the dark he's still the most beautiful man I've ever seen. I can't fight the love I have for him, even though I feel the distrust still there, hanging in the air between us.

  "You made the right choice," he whispers and steps to me. His warm hands wrap around mine.

  I look down where we are touching and shake my head, "I was so mad at you. You changed me and let my momma kill my sister and let my daddy die. You let Angie marry Martin and Tessa rot with this old house. You and I let so many things happen to the people I loved and I hated you for it."

  He lowers his face to mine and kisses my cheek, "Shhhh. We didn’t make those same mistakes this time."

  I feel the black water run down my cheek. I look at him and let him wipe away my tears. My lip trembles, "I did, I made those same mistakes. I did it. I took away their rights and changed their worlds."

  He kisses again but I push him off. It's a conflict for my body. I want to hold him to me.

  I shake my head, "I made the same choice for them that you made for me. I understand why you did it. I just wanted to say that. I'm not mad anymore. I get why you would make that choice for me."

  He stands up and looks down on me, "I just want you safe. I want you away from it all."

  I look out into the night and remember Marcus. I swallow and look up at Whit, "My blood is still... well, like it was before. It still makes you feel things."

  His jaw tightens for a second before he speaks, "I know. Claiming the magic makes you a witch. Granted you're nearly undead, but your blood is the same as it always was. Now it's just a short-term effect, but it means that you'll be able to be used by others for the effects. Not to mention it's incredibly sexual for us."

  I swallow hard and rub my wrist where the bites were. I loved the feeling of Marcus drawing my blood, but it's like cheating on Whit.

  Instantly I remember the question Marcus asked me and frown up into his dark eyes, "Why did you ask if you asked me to wish anything before, in the other time?"

  His face freezes in thought or panic. His lips play with a grin, "Why?"

  I raise an eyebrow, "Someone mentioned it and I think it's weird you did it."

  He gulps I think, I swear I see him gulp. He looks out into the night and mutters, "Bloody Marcus needs to mind his own business." He runs a hand through his hair and it distracts me. I know then that the effects he had on me before are worse now.

  I shake my head, "You made me wish it for a reason didn’t you?"

  He gives me a serious look, "I'm trying to protect you."

  I step back, "What?"

  His face changes to humble instantly, "My love, I want you safe. This guarantees no other vampires can force your love."

  "What have you done?" I whisper.

  He grabs my arms, "You have to know it was for your protection."

  I sneer, "It always is. Why did you make me wish that?" Heat creeps up my face as I recall the image of him forcing the wish from my lips. His face buried between my thighs and sucking blood from there. The virginal innocent me, makes the blush worsen.

  "Witches who haven’t gotten their power yet can make wishes and
they come true. Ramón and his grandmamma were protecting you and stunting your magic. They were keeping it from your mother. They didn’t want her to know you had magic. You have witch blood no matter what, but only some witches are born with magic. They had protection spells on you, stopping her magic on you. I think they assumed she was going to go for you. Emily was too young for her. More than likely she didn’t want to start out so young again. She probably wanted to be old enough to make choices and be an adult."

  I hold a hand up and cut him off, "What does this have to do with the wish?"

  He sighs, "The wish is sealed. You will love me forever. You claimed your magic and made a wish. It's done."

  I feel instantly sick, "Oh lord. What have you done?" I step away from him and rip my arms from his grip.

  He looms over me, "You loved me anyway, this just makes it so no one can use glamour or compulsion and take your blood."

  I laugh bitterly, "Well, tonight Marcus came to me and took my blood. So there."

  He grabs my arms and drags me to him, "YOU ARE MINE, LORELEI!" He drags me through the doors to my room and throws me on the bed. I scramble up the bed to the headboard, terrified. I watch him pace the room. He growls and breathes like a bull in a pen.

  He turns and the rage on his face frightens me to near death, "You will not see him again. Do you understand me?"

  I feel my face nod, against my will. He forces me into the agreement. I feel his power over my blood and body.

  He covers his face and shakes his head.

  I climb off the bed and bolt. I jump the stairs and fly across the garden, trying to ignore his screams and the smell of the smoke still lingering in the damp air.

  I race through to woods, pushing my legs and lungs. I can hear him behind me and push myself harder.

  He doesn’t give up like before.

  "STOP!" he screams.

  My legs stop instantly. I crumple to the ground. He has the control over me. I feel the flames inside of my veins as he rounds the corner to the small clearing I'm slumped in.

  He pants and points. "Stop. Just let me show you, I love you. I did it all out of love."