Charley Chambers

by Rachel Kennedy

  ‘All right, love,’ he winked as they passed, his brown hair swept messily over one eye.

  Charley stopped in front of him. ‘You lied to me,’ she said accusingly.

  He pushed himself from the pole. ‘About what?’

  ‘You said you healed Jess, used black magic to cure her.’

  ‘Yes . . .’

  ‘Demons can’t heal people,’ said Aiden.

  ‘Sure they can.’

  ‘Not without consequences.’

  ‘Maybe there’ll be consequences then. What do I care? My whole world came tumbling in on me last night.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Aiden sighed.

  ‘Oh, nothing. Just got shot down by someone, that’s all.’

  ‘You’re having girl trouble?’ Aiden raised an eyebrow.

  ‘Afraid so. It’s all right though. She just hasn’t worked out how she feels yet.’ Marcus smiled wickedly at Charley. ‘Honestly, I think she’s just scared.’

  ‘Who is it?’ Aiden asked, and Charley’s eyes shot open as she registered what he’d said.

  Marcus smiled. ‘No one you need to concern yourself with.’

  Charley frowned; she’d heard him say that before.

  And the nost? You gonna tell me who it was for yet?

  No one you need to concern yourself with.

  ‘Well, hopefully she’ll run a million miles,’ Aiden snorted, pitying any girl that ended up in the clutches of Marcus Gillespie.

  ‘I get the feeling she won’t,’ he grinned. ‘She’ll be back.’

  ‘Don’t count on it,’ Charley muttered, but Marcus only laughed.

  ‘You saying you wouldn’t go back, Charley? If you had this unbelievable connection with someone, something indescribable, wouldn’t you want to explore it, find out if it was real? Isn’t it better to be with the right person, even if it is a little terrifying?’

  ‘There is no right person for you,’ Aiden scoffed. ‘And if there is, well, she’d need to be just as sadistic as you are.’

  Charley felt that familiar knot in her stomach and, for a moment, she thought she was going to be sick.

  ‘Can we go?’ she said to Aiden, linking her arm through his. ‘This conversation is making me nauseous.’

  The cafeteria was filled with eager students, hurrying into queues to line up for their lunch. Charley wasn’t hungry. She was sitting at one of the tables, her feet resting across Aiden’s lap while he tried to finish off a pile of overdue homework.

  Charley, bored and looking for something to do, began raking through her schoolbag. Something at the back of her mind was bothering her. She wasn’t sure what, but it was niggling away at her, making it terribly hard to concentrate.

  She leafed through her various jotters, eventually deciding that she wasn’t in the mood to study. It could wait.

  ‘Want a mint?’ she asked Aiden, unzipping one of the pockets and chucking the packet to him.

  Before she zipped it back up, she spotted something shiny in the corner of the pocket: the locket she’d found that day in the corridor, the day she’d heard the mysterious voice.

  ‘What’s that?’ Aiden said as she pulled it from the bag, twisting it round her index finger.

  ‘It’s the necklace I found, the day you told me about my gran being sick.’

  ‘Oh, I remember. You never did say where you found it.’

  ‘It was lying outside the toilets. There was a woman

  . . . she said something, but before I could find out who it was, she was gone. The only thing left was this locket.’

  ‘What d’you mean, a woman?’

  ‘A woman, Aiden. As in a female . . .’

  Aiden tickled her behind the knee, making her squirm in her chair.

  ‘Very funny. You know that’s not what I meant. Was it one of the other students? It is the girl’s toilet after all.’

  ‘It didn’t sound like a student. She definitely sounded older . . .’

  ‘One of the teachers?’

  ‘Maybe. Oh, I don’t know. She left in such a hurry.’

  ‘What’s it say on the front?’ Aiden asked, pointing towards the locket. ‘Something’s written there . . .’

  ‘I know. I tried before, but I couldn’t make it out.’

  Aiden took the locket from her, examining it closely. ‘Looks like a three,’ he said.

  ‘A three? Why would someone have a three engraved on a locket?’

  ‘Don’t ask me,’ he said, shrugging. ‘What’s inside?’

  ‘Don’t know, it wouldn’t . . .’

  Aiden pulled the clasps apart and the locket came free, leaving Charley feeling rather silly.

  ‘. . . open. Hey, how did you do that? It wouldn’t budge when I tried.’

  ‘Maybe you’re not strong enough,’ Aiden winked, and Charley cocked an eyebrow at him. ‘Any idea who she is?’ he said, passing the locket across to her.

  Charley stared at it for a moment, her heart in her mouth. ‘It . . .’ She frowned in bewilderment. ‘It looks like me.’

  Aiden took the locket back and looked at the picture more carefully. ‘She does a bit,’ he said, ‘only younger. That kid can’t be older than nine, ten at most.’

  ‘Trust me,’ she said, ‘that’s what I looked like when I was ten. That’s me . . .’

  ‘Why would some strange lady have a picture of you?’ Aiden asked. ‘You sure it’s not yours?’

  ‘I think I’d remember my own necklace,’ Charley answered.

  ‘Jess, maybe?’

  ‘Now you’re being ridiculous. Why would Jess put a picture of me inside her locket? She can’t stand the sight of me most of the time.’

  ‘Could be a front; she might secretly idolise you, just doesn’t want you to know.’

  ‘No, she used to idolise me. Now all I do is irritate her.’

  ‘And she irritates you. It’s what sisters do.’

  ‘You know what I mean. Things aren’t the way they used to be.’

  Aiden closed the locket and dropped it back into Charley’s palm. ‘We’ll find out what’s wrong with her,’ he said softly. ‘It’ll all be okay, I promise.’

  ‘Just like it was okay with Gran? We were too late with her.’

  ‘Yeah, but your gran died because of a nost. That’s not the case with–’

  ‘Jess . . .’ Charley whispered, the colour draining from her face. Why hadn’t she thought of it sooner?

  ‘The things that were happening to her . . . the things she was saying. There was something inside her, something hurting her. She asked me to get it out . . .’

  Aiden’s face filled with horror. ‘Oh my God,’ he murmured.

  Charley dropped the locket, her hands no longer able to function. ‘The nost Marcus conjured . . . Aiden, it was for Jess.’

  Marcus smiled to himself as he wandered home, his boots scuffing the ground as he walked. He knew he’d rattled Charley. The way she was behaving amused him no end, watching her sweat as he mocked her in front of Aiden. He also knew it wasn’t completely one-sided; he’d felt the burn when their hands had touched and from the look on her face, he knew she’d felt it as well.

  He turned the corner, whistling to himself as he strolled along, and then everything went black.

  Marcus opened his eyes, slowly trying to find his bearings. His ears were throbbing and a dull ache stretched across the back of his head; it felt like he’d been smacked with a baseball bat. He tried to lift his hand to check for blood, but it wouldn’t move, his wrist bound tightly to the arm of a chair. He checked the other – it was the same.

  Marcus chuckled, his eyes finally focusing on the first person he saw: Charley.

  ‘I knew there was a dark side to you, Charley, but I didn’t realise you were such a deviant.’

  ‘Can�
�t we just gag him?’ Dru groaned from the chair she was lying in, her legs dangling over the edge.

  ‘Nice to see you too, Red,’ Marcus said with a sneer. Dru pulled a face in return.

  ‘No, we can’t gag him,’ Charley said, her voice more malevolent than any of them had ever heard it before. ‘I need to hear what he has to say. Marcus has something he needs to do for me, and he isn’t leaving here until it’s done.’

  ‘And what’s that, love? You after a snog? Fine by me, my lips are ready and waiting . . .’

  Quinn, who was balanced on the back of Dru’s chair, scowled, and in disgust said, ‘Like she’d ever want a kiss from you. She’d rather stick pins in her eyes.’

  ‘Really? That’s not the impression I got when I kissed her last night,’ Marcus grinned, and Charley felt her stomach go, the way it does when the car drops from the top of a roller coaster. Quinn’s jaw nearly hit the floor and Dru rolled her eyes, fed up with all the trivial mind games. And Aiden . . . Aiden looked ready to burst.

  ‘He kissed you?’ he yelled, not wanting to believe what Marcus had said, yet somehow knowing it was true.

  ‘No . . . I mean, he did, but it . . . it wasn’t like that. I didn’t ask him to and I did not kiss him back.’

  ‘That’s debatable,’ Marcus shrugged.

  ‘Shut up!’ Charley snarled.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Aiden demanded, his knuckles turning white. ‘It’s not like you didn’t have plenty of opportunities. I was with you all night, remember?’ Aiden’s fist came down on the piano, the little box of chocolates bouncing off the edge.

  Marcus winced, experiencing a twinge of jealousy when he heard Charley had spent the night with Aiden.

  ‘I wanted to tell you. I thought about it, really I did. I knew you’d be upset though. I didn’t want you to get mad.’

  ‘Like I am now?’ Aiden snarled.

  ‘Yeah, pretty much.’

  ‘You should have told me, Chambers. I would’ve understood. By God, I wouldn’t have been happy, but I would’ve understood.’

  ‘I’m sorry . . .’ she whispered.

  ‘Don’t you trust me?’

  Charley felt like she’d been punched in the gut. ‘Of course I do! It’s him I don’t trust.’ She gestured towards Marcus, who only smirked at her, enjoying the chaos he was creating. ‘I know I should’ve told you. I just didn’t want to risk losing you.’

  ‘You were never going to lose me, Chambers. Not in a million years. Goddamnit, I’m in love with you, you moron.’

  Everything around Charley froze, and she could have sworn her heart stopped beating. Only for a second, but it definitely skipped a beat.

  ‘You . . . you love me?’

  ‘Of course I do. I think I’ve loved you from the moment I met you.’

  Dru moaned from her chair. ‘Can we please not be so bloody sentimental? Haven’t we got more important things to be dealing with than some demon’s stupid teenage crush?’

  ‘Hey,’ Marcus grumbled, ‘how come he gets to declare his undying love for her, yet all I am is some half-baked demon with a crush? Hardly sounds fair.’

  ‘We’ll play fair when you do,’ Charley replied. ‘Right now, you have work to do.’

  ‘You do know I could break these ropes in a second if I tried,’ Marcus boasted.

  ‘That’s what these are for.’ Fergus walked through the door, a pair of metal shackles in his hand. He clamped one around Marcus’s wrist, locked it shut, then did the same with the other. ‘That should hold you.’

  ‘Seriously?’ Marcus scoffed. ‘I can get out of these, too. I am a demon, don’t forget.’ He looked at Charley wistfully. ‘Not that you’re likely to.’

  ‘The restraints are bound by a spell. You can try all you like, you won’t get out of them.’

  And Marcus did try, although without much success. Eventually, he gave up, realising he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

  ‘So what are you grilling me for this time?’ he muttered.

  ‘Oh, I don’t know. How about the nost you summoned for my sister? Why don’t we start there?’

  Marcus’s face was blank for a minute, until finally his lips curled into a sly smile. ‘So you worked it out, eh? Not bad.’

  ‘Why?’ Charley barked. ‘Why Jess?’

  ‘Only Jess would do,’ he said honestly.

  ‘Do for what? What’s she ever done to you?’

  ‘You really want me to tell you?’

  ‘Yes,’ she snapped, her blood boiling.

  ‘You sure?’

  ‘What the hell do you want with my sister?’

  ‘She isn’t your sister, Charley. She’s mine.’

  Nobody in the room moved. Everybody stared from Marcus to Charley and back again. Charley didn’t know what to say.

  ‘You’re lying,’ she eventually said, but the words came out in a whisper.

  ‘Wish I was, love.’

  ‘How can she be? That doesn’t make any sense.’

  ‘Actually, it makes perfect sense. Go into my pocket. There’s something you need to see.’

  Charley let out an exasperated sigh and reluctantly did as he asked.

  She pulled out a photograph, the one Marcus had hidden from her the day she’d accidentally emptied out the contents of his jacket. It was the girl from the locket.

  ‘Bud was your sister,’ Marcus said, ‘and Jess is mine.’

  ‘Bud . . .’ Charley breathed, pulling the locket from her trouser pocket. ‘That’s who the photo’s of . . . not me.’ She shivered, her skin now ice-cold. ‘It isn’t a three,’ she said to Aiden, running her finger across the front of the locket. ‘It’s a B.’

  ‘Aren’t you a clever-clogs?’ Marcus sneered, and Charley slapped him with the back of her hand.

  ‘How?’ she demanded, but Marcus ignored her.

  ‘Why are people always hitting me?’ he groaned, although he was still smiling.

  ‘How? How is it possible?’

  ‘Are you going to hit me again?’

  ‘I’ll do worse than hit you if you don’t start talking.’

  Marcus laughed. ‘God, I love it when you’re angry.’ Charley raised her hand, ready to smack him again when Marcus said, ‘All right, all right. I’ll tell you.’

  Charley crossed her arms, waiting impatiently for him to say something.

  ‘Ever heard of Jensen Martinez?’

  ‘Nope.’

  ‘He was a warlock my mother created back when I was small.’

  ‘What do you mean, created?’ Charley asked dubiously.

  ‘She made him. She turned a human into a warlock, wanted to use him in some war she was having with this shaman from Mongolia.’

  ‘What exactly is a warlock?’ Charley asked, turning to the others. ‘Is it the male equivalent of a witch or something?’

  ‘Oh no,’ Quinn shook her head. ‘Warlocks and witches have zilch in common.’

  ‘Apart from they’re both incredibly powerful,’ said Dru. ‘And dangerous.’

  ‘Warlocks are some of the most evil creatures you get,’ Marcus said. ‘They have no filter. They don’t have feelings. After my mother created Jensen, before he lost himself completely, he vowed to kill her next born child. He wasn’t strong enough to kill my mother himself, but a baby he could manage.’

  ‘Why didn’t he just kill you?’ Aiden asked, wishing immensely that he had.

  ‘Don’t know. All he said was he’d kill her next born, whenever that was. He must have sensed it though, because a few weeks later my mum found out she was pregnant. She didn’t know what to do. She knew if she ran, he’d find her eventually.’

  ‘Why didn’t she just destroy him? Surely she’s powerful enough?’

  ‘Nope. She created him, meaning he was just as strong as she was. Neither o
f them had the power to kill the other, but he did have the power to kill someone she cared about.’

  ‘So what did she do?’ Quinn asked, intrigued.

  ‘She panicked. She spent months worrying about it, trying to come up with a plan. Despite being one of the most powerful demons alive, she couldn’t think how to protect her unborn child. A few days before she went into labour, she decided what to do.’

  ‘And that was . . . ?’ Dru asked impatiently.

  ‘She’d go to the hospital, have the baby as normal, then she’d leave with someone else’s.’

  ‘She took someone else’s child?’ Aiden exclaimed in disgust.

  ‘Yep. She knew her baby would be safe with a regular family. Jensen would only look as far as my mother. She had it all figured out: she would take the baby, let Jensen find her, Jensen would kill it and then she’d go back for her own kid. He wouldn’t come looking for her again after thinking he’d killed it.’

  ‘And she went through with it?’ Quinn murmured. ‘She took–’

  ‘Bud. She took Bud and left Jess with my mother,’ Charley said, a vacant look in her eyes.

  Marcus sighed. Despite his bravado, he couldn’t bear to see Charley in pain.

  ‘After the baby was born, my mum took her down to the nursery. She fried the security cameras and put a sleeping spell on the midwife. Then she searched until she found the baby most similar to her own.’

  ‘Bud . . .’ Charley said.

  ‘Yeah. They were almost identical. She checked the family name on the cot so she could find her again when the time was right, then she took Bud and left.’

  ‘And no one noticed the babies were swapped?’ Dru asked suspiciously. ‘Surely you’d notice that you had a different sprog?’

  ‘My mum only saw Jess for a second after she was born,’ – Charley paused, realising what she’d just said – ‘Bud . . . she only saw Bud for a moment. She lost a lot of blood and her oxygen levels dropped – the baby was fine but Mum was rushed away for surgery. My dad wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference,’ she whispered sadly, looking to the floor.

  ‘What happened with Martinez?’ Fergus asked. ‘Did he find your mother?’

  ‘Not for a long time. See, when Mum took Bud, she got something she never bargained for. She didn’t know Bud was a magician. Your parents were just a couple of insigs, Charley, and she didn’t know about you. She knew your gran, but only as a Blightly – she didn’t know who the Chambers family were.’