“Stella! Lucas! Stop your running! And for goodness sakes, do not use your magic on one another!”
The loud voice boomed though the air, and Jade jumped, staring ahead of her at the older woman, with long, dark hair as she lifted her head. Gasping as she found herself staring into identical blue eyes. “Is that… me?”
“And your children. Stella and Lucas.”
“I have children? A girl and a boy?” Jade asked, her mouth dropping open. “But no one in my family has ever had a boy!”
“Things change, Jade.”
“But who’s the father?”
“Be patient. You’ll see.”
“Agh. Will you stop your yelling?” Jasmine asked, groaning, as she walked down the stairs. She held a hand to her stomach, wincing. “You’re giving me and the baby a headache.” She grinned, glancing down at the kids as they ran up to her. “Hi Lucas. Hi Stella. Are you giving your mother more gray hair?”
“And loving every minute of it,” Josslyn said, walking through the door. She smiled, hefting the infant in her arms. “Right J.J?”
“Josslyn! You’re back!”
“Wait. I don’t recognize this house,” Jade said. “Where are we?”
“Would you stop asking questions and just watch?”
“Jade! Don’t you have to take Jasmine to the doctor?” Julie asked, racing down the stairs. “Dammitt, where are my keys? I’m late! I have to get to the office! There’s been a crisis!”
“Right here, Julie,” a young, dark-haired man said, walking into the room. He handed Julie her keys, stopping next to Jade and pressing a kiss to her lips. “I guess we have a full house today, huh?”
“It’s just like old times,” a brunette woman said, walking into the living room, handing envelopes out. “Here. I finally made wedding invitations and you all had better come.”
“Of course we’ll come, Jorja,” Jade said, laughing. “We’re your family!”
“For almost six years now,” Jorja said, smiling. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Aww!”
“So, are you ready to watch the kids?” Jade asked, glancing over at her husband. “Josslyn and I are going to take Jasmine to the doctors then do some shopping. Since someone is pregnant again.” She glanced over at Josslyn.
Josslyn just grinned. “What can I say. I want a big family.”
“You already have a big family,” Jade said. She glanced at her husband. “So?”
“I think I can handle the little ones, Jade,” the man said. “I think we’ll do some finger painting!”
“Just as long as I don’t have to clean up the mess when I get home,” Jade said, grinning. “Bye, Honey! I’ll see you later. Love you!”
“Whoa… I’m married?” Jade asked, staring at the scene as it unfolded in front of her. Her eyes zoning in on the diamond ring lying on her finger. Holy crap! It’s huge! “But who is he? I can’t see his face!”
“I can’t tell you that, Jade.”
“And Josslyn! She has a kid? And she’s pregnant? And Jasmine’s pregnant? And Julie! She has a job? Oh, and Jorja! She’s my other sister? She’s so pretty!”
Cynthia laughed. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“I love information!” Jade cried. “I want to see more!”
“You can’t, Jade. If I show you any more, it’ll cloud your judgement and you’ll never have this future you see standing in front of you.” She snapped her fingers, propelling them from the future.
“So that’s it?” Jade asked.
“I’ve shown you all you need to see,” Cynthia said, just as a streak of lightning split through the skies. “Uh oh. Looks like something’s happened.”
“What?”
“I don’t know, but whatever it is, it can’t be good,” Cynthia said, glancing over her shoulder at Jade. “Jade, you have to go. Something happened down on earth, with one of your sisters. That future I just showed you, it’s cloudy and unstable. You have to help them, before everything is ruined.”
“But how? I have no way to get home!”
“Sure you do,” Cynthia said, winking at her as she disappeared into the shadows. “Teleport.”
“Wait. Elijah?” Jasmine swung her head around, staring at Josslyn in shock. “Elijah is your ex-boyfriend? You dated a demon?”
“Yup,” Josslyn murmured, still not quite believing it herself. “Quite a world we live in, huh? Wait. How do you know about Elijah?”
“The black angels. They nearly killed me up there, Josslyn!” Jasmine cried. “They were guarding Sky’s heart, and one of them said something about Elijah. Something, about taking his place in hell?”
“Why were the black angels up in the heavens?” Aaron asked, stepping up next to them. “They were banished years ago!”
“One of the black angels said something about evil taking over the heavens. And apparently, there’s a bounty on our heads?”
“There’s always a bounty on a witch’s head,” Aaron muttered. “Evil taking over…” He suddenly froze, his eyes widening. “Oh crap.” He turned, disappearing in a whirl of gold lights.
“Aaron!” Josslyn cried, raising her head, watching as the lights disappeared from sight. “Where are you going? We need you!”
“Forget him,” Jasmine said. “I need you to tell me everything!”
“I will. But first I have to get to the book. I’m guessing something about Elijah is in there. Bastard! He tricked me. Made me lose years of my life. God, I hate him even more than I did back then!” She growled. “And where the hell is Jade?”
“Up in heaven still… I think,” Jasmine said, following Josslyn up the stairs.
“Well, I certainly hope she’s having better luck up here than we are down here!” Josslyn shouted, glancing toward the heavens. “Come on. I need to know if there’s something about this wedding in the book.”
“What wedding?”
“Julie’s wedding?”
“Whoa. What?” Jasmine grabbed Josslyn by the arm, stopping her at the top of the stairs. “Julie’s getting married?”
“Yes. To Elijah.”
“Josslyn, could you give me all the bad news at once instead of in spurts!” Jasmine cried, as they walked into the attic. “It’s hard enough for me to wrap my mind around Julie being evil, let alone her marrying a demon!”
“Julie’s not evil.”
“But you just said…”
“I know what I said!” Josslyn snapped, swinging around to glare at Jasmine. “But she is not evil! She’s our sister, Jasmine, and I know deep in my heart that Julie is not evil! She’s sweet. She’s kind. She cares about people, and she could have killed me down there! She threw flames at me, Jasmine. Flames that could have killed me! But instead, she sent me back to earth. That’s got to mean something, right?”
“Maybe,” Jasmine murmured, stepping up to the podium. She glanced down at the book. “Uh oh.”
“What?”
“There’s a J missing,” Jasmine said, pointing to the book. “There’s only three of them!”
“Dammit!” Josslyn sighed, closing her eyes and trying to keep calm. It’s okay, Joss. The book changes all the time. There’s no reason to think it won’t change again. Julie can’t be gone forever. She blew out a breath and flipped the book open. She flipped through the pages, “Hey! There he is!” she cried, pointing to the page. “Elijah.”
“Ooh. He is quite yummy looking,” Jasmine said, laughing at the glare Josslyn sent her way. “Hey, you must have thought so too at one point. If you dated him.”
“Hmpht.” Josslyn sighed. “But you’re right. He is hot. Was hot. That dark hair. Those brown eyes…” She sighed. “They remind me of the color of chocolate. I can’t count how many times I got lost in those eyes, oh, and those dimples…” she sighed again. “I was mesmerized by him, but he made me do things that…” she trailed off. “Never mind. Let’s see what it says in here about him.” She leaned in close.
“It says that he was
one of Satan’s most loyal demons,” Jasmine said, reading over Josslyn’s shoulder. “His protégé or apprentice I guess you would call him.”
“But he was consumed with wanting more. More power,” Josslyn said, reading from the book. “It says here that he tried to overthrow Satan and was locked up in the torture chamber of hell for centuries. Wait a minute! If he was locked up in the torture chamber, how did he manipulate me all those years ago?”
“Astro projection,” Jasmine said, pointing to the book. “It’s one of his powers. He can essentially be in two places at once.”
“Bastard.”
“But once Satan was killed, the curse that was placed on him was lifted and he was freed from hell. But as all things with magic, it came with a price. If a soul is not replaced in the torture chamber within six months, Vargus must find a replacement. Which is why he was here. To replace his soul.” She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “It says here that he has the power of manipulation.”
“Basically, bringing someone’s dark side out?”
“You got it.”
Josslyn sighed. “Well, no surprise there. He always did have a way of making me do things I didn’t want to do.”
“Like what?”
“Like cheating on an exam or stealing Gram’s jewelry.” She winced. “We made a nice profit on that.”
“You ran away with him after graduation, didn’t you?”
Josslyn nodded. “Yes. Why wouldn’t I? He was hot. He promised to take care of me. He even promised that we would get married someday. Have lots of children, and a big house.” She sighed. “But in order to do all that we had to make money, and it wasn’t like either of us had jobs so instead we stole.”
“Stole what?”
“Anything we could get our hands on. Jewelry. Diamonds. Watches. You name it. We were doing pretty well too. We were able to afford a nice, one-bedroom apartment. We just had one last job then we were home free. We could go anywhere we wanted.”
“What was the job?”
“Stealing diamonds from a local jewelry store,” Joss said. “We had a buyer all lined up, all we needed were the diamonds. We had a plan. Elijah would take the back, and I would take the front. Only, when I went through the front door, Elijah was no where to be found. He’d disappeared on me, and then, the cops were there. I took the blame for everything and was sentenced to five years in prison. Luckily, I got out in four for good behavior.”
“You were in prison for four years?”
Josslyn nodded. “Being in prison is not fun, Jasmine! It’s especially not fun if you’re pregnant. They don’t feed you right. You should see these small portions they give you! You don’t even get the medical treatment you need. I didn’t have one ultrasound while I was there, and when the baby’s ready to come they put you under anesthesia. I didn’t even get to see or hear my baby.” She bit her lip, biting back tears as she pushed the memories away, flipping the page. “Hey. Here it is. The dark ceremony.”
“The dark ceremony?” Jasmine scrunched her nose. “You know, our ancestors really should come up with a lot cooler names for these things. They are so boring!”
Josslyn laughed. “You sound like me!” She read through the page. “It says here that the ceremony has to occur on the night of the eclipse.” She glanced out at the sky, as the sun and moon drew closer to one another. “Which is tomorrow night!” she cried. “In less than twenty-four hours!”
“And they’ve got almost everything they need,” Jasmine said. “Look. For a dark ceremony to occur, a good witch must be tempted by the forces of evil. Well they have that. Julie. They also need a black dress that has been blessed by an evil sorceress. My guess… they have that. The only thing they need is an evil sorceress, each other’s blood, and the sacrifices.”
“Sacrifices?”
Jasmine nodded. “Yes. They need the blood of the young which are…” She froze. “Connected to the witch.”
“But Julie doesn’t have children!”
“No, but you do.”
“I…” Josslyn trailed off, her face turning pale as fear rose inside of her. “Oh my God! My child is in danger? Jasmine, we have to find him or her! Before it’s too late!”
“How? We don’t even know where your child is!”
“With a simple tracking spell,” Josslyn said, pulling the map out from underneath the table and picking up the knife. “I saw it in the book. If I sprinkle my blood on here.” She sliced the edge of the knife across her palm, sprinkling the blood over the map. “And sprinkle a little hemlock root…” she took a pinch from the container, sprinkling it over the map. “And close my eyes…” She closed her eyes, focusing all her thoughts on her child. “It should…”
“Whoa! Joss, look!”
She snapped her eyes open, watching as the map floated in the air, a smile spreading across her lips. “Well, would you look at that. Come on, Jasmine! Let’s go find my child!”
“Elijah, is everything ready?”
“Just about,” Elijah said, glancing over his shoulder as the vampire queen walked into the room. “It’s been a long time, Talia.”
“Yes, it has,” Talia said, as she walked into the room her back and red dress swirling around her ankles as she walked. She twirled in a circle, her dark, auburn hair whipping around her. Pale, white skin glimmering in the hues of the fire as she took a seat in the chair at the front of the room. “It’s been centuries, Elijah! How was hell?”
“Hell,” Elijah said, picking two chalices up from the table, and setting them on the podium. He flipped through the book, picking up the black rose lying in front of him and crushing it into the bowl. “But it made me stronger. Stronger than I’ve ever been.” He added the toad stool to the bowl. “In fact, it took any humanity I had and ripped it right out of me.” He added the final ingredients. Some cumin powder and a dash of blood. The potion bubbled, exploding, and he grabbed the chalices, dipping the rims into the potion. “There. They are blessed.”
“Hmm. But you still have a missing ingredient. No, two missing ingredients.”
“We’re working on that now.”
“So, who took your place in hell?”
Elijah grinned. “The witch’s angel.” He waved his hand, pointing to the image on the wall of Sky, as he huddled in his cell, clutching his head as memories and thoughts swarmed him. “He’ll never survive. He’s too weak. He’ll be dead before they ever find him.”
“Don’t forget about his love for the witch,” Talia said, crossing her legs. “Love is stronger than anything. Especially for humans.”
“Except when the bond is broken. Which is precisely what I’m going to do with the witches.”
“And just what is it you need from me?”
“Who said I needed something from you?”
“You didn’t just call me here to talk, Elijah.”
Elijah smirked. “You’re right, I didn’t, although I do enjoy our talks.” He leaned his arms on the podium, looking at Talia. “I need your help.”
“So you’re really going to go through with it. You’re really going to marry the witch?”
“If it breaks the bond of the chosen ones, yes. It’s the only thing keeping me from being coordinated as leader of the underworld.”
“You had a vision?”
“It does help having a seer for a mother,” Elijah said, his lip curving.
“What did you see?”
“I’m not going to tell you all my secrets, Talia.”
“Even if I was the one who bathed you, fed you, and got you back to full strength when you escaped from hell?”
“I haven’t forgotten that, Talia,” Elijah said, glancing over at her. “I am forever in your debt.”
“So what do I get in return for helping you?”
“A seat at the roundtable.”
“But Satan banished me!”
“Satan’s not here anymore, and once I am crowned leader of the underworld, I will reinstate you back into the fold.”
“Get the witch’s blood,” Elijah said. It’s the last ingredient I need before the ceremony.”
“Of course.” Talia rose to her feet, glancing over her shoulder at Elijah. “You know, I always thought it would be you and I taking our rightful place in the underworld. We were quite the item back in the day, and I would make a great queen!”
“Oh, I know you would,” Elijah said, grinning. “And once upon a time, I too, thought it would be you and I ruling the underworld.”
“What changed?”
“Everything,” Elijah said. “And now…”
“You have the witch,” Talia said, softly. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Elijah.”
“Oh, I do, Talia,” Elijah said, his eyes locking with hers. “I always have a plan. In fact, I always have a plan A, a plan B, and a plan C. Especially when it comes to taking down witches.”
“And the child?”
“Oh she’ll come into play very soon…” Elijah said, grinning. “All three of them will.”
“You let her escape, you fools! And she got away with the damned heart!”
The loud voice boomed nearby, and Jade jumped. She glanced over her shoulder, racing through the heavens, and above her lightning streaked through the sky. She stopped, gulping as the yellow electricity streaked through the dark, red depths. It looks like blood, she thought, peering around the corner of the building as the black angels talked to the Gods.
“She’s a strong one, my lord,” one of the black angels said, kneeling in front of the God. “Her love for the angel is even stronger.”
“But we needed his heart! If we’re going to fully turn the witches!”
“Relax. Everything is just as it should be,” another one of the Gods said, walking forward, and laying a hand on his shoulder. “Everything is going according to plan. The witch and angel are separated. The angel, is in hell’s chamber now.”
“Hehe. I can’t say I feel bad for him,” another one of the God’s said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “He’s been a thorn in our side for years.”
Crossroads Page 9