Brave (Healer) (17 page)

             
The white sparks hit the vampires and I can’t believe what I see next. Their porcelain skin begins to crack and crumble into dust until there is nothing but a pile of clothes and a confused looking wolf.

             
Rose is a witch?

FOURTEEN

             
‘Wait. What? What?’ I feel hysterical after what I’ve just seen. How can Rose be a witch? I’ve known her for almost a year and I had never suspected.

             
Oliver, in his wolf form, scampers off. I wish I had the chance to talk to him when he couldn’t talk back. I would tell him all the things I realised, tell him that I want to be with him, but now is not the time for heart-to-heart’s.

             
Rose puts her hands on her hips and with a smug smile says, ‘You didn’t think those were ordinary wooden stakes I used on Maurice, did you?’

             
I open my mouth but I can’t think of anything intelligent to say. I feel duped but suddenly things make sense. There was no way she could have taken Maurice down as a human even if she did have surprise on her hand. He had had my blood. He was untouchable but do even the untouchable have an enemy? Witches must be able to destroy any vampire - Healer blood or not. Then I think about how odd it was that Rose’s family had such close ties with so many supernaturals. She knew so many witches and she worked for Maurice and June, her Aunt, was the caretaker of a wolf. The bracelets! It wasn’t Arrow who made them, it was her! Was Arrow even real or was she just a coverup and it was really Rose casting all these spells?

             
‘You have a
lot
of explaining to do,’ I say when I manage to find my voice. I knew she kept secrets from me but this... this was on a whole new level of secrecy. She has hidden a massive part of her life, of who she is, from me. Things would have been different if I had known she was supernatural.

             
Rose is breathing heavily. The spell must have been exhausting. ‘Let’s get this place cleaned up first,’ she says. I feel too fragile, too frightened, to move. She helps me peel off my bloody clothes and put them in the washing room then she washes my body in the shower and I feel nauseous to see the clean water turn to a vile shade of pink swirling around the drain then she dresses me in clean pyjamas. There is no way that I can thank her. She has been my hero so many times in so many ways. I feel horrible about the way I treated her earlier today. I told her I hated her, why? Because she tried to protect me from getting hurt. I keep taking her for granted and it makes me hate myself.

             
I smell and look fresh. There are no bite wounds or bruises, there is no evidence at all of the ordeal I just experienced. Yet again I come out of the worst situations unscathed. I wish the memories were so easily erased. I wonder if Rose could take them away with a spell. I want to forget so much that has happened to me.

             
‘I think we need to go back to Oliver’s,’ Rose says to me. ‘It’s not safe here anymore. Maurice has sent out the message to all the vampires he knows to come find you.’

             
‘What about my family?’ I say, I’m shaking. Not only do I have to worry about Maurice but apparently every vampire in the world wants to kill me. Then I think about my family. They aren’t home yet, where are they? Are they okay? There is a giant lump in my throat as I imagine all the horrible things that could happen to them.

             
‘Shannon is in the hospital. She hasn’t been well since Lily was born. Your dad is with her and Bruce, Jana and Lily are staying with Shannon’s mum,’ Rose explains. ‘They’ll be safe. I have put up stronger wards on the house but I doubt vampires will come after them anyway.’ She has been keeping an eye on my family but I’m not reassured by what she says. It’s been a month since I left and Shannon is still ill. This is serious and exactly what my family don’t need. Lily has just been born and I disappear off the face of the planet and suddenly Shannon is sick. My dad can never get a break and he so badly deserves one.

             
I exhale deeply while I try to think about what I’m going to do. I have to leave. I’ll die if I don’t go back to Oliver’s. The vampires will do anything for a taste of my blood. ‘Can we stop by the hospital before we go to Oliver’s?’ I ask. ‘I need to see them.’

             
I expect her to say no. That it’s not a good idea or that we don’t have time but Rose, always surprising, smiles and nods at me. We drive to Ayrin Central. This place has bad memories for me. It’s the place where I used to be prodded at in order to figure out what made me a freak. I had to endure hundreds of disapproving stares here. The familiar smell of disinfectant fills my nostrils and I want to run away. The last time I was here my baby sister had been born and now her mother was dying here.

             
The nurses are surprised to see me when I ask for which room Shannon Mueller is in but they lead me and Rose to her ward and there I find my dad sleeping on the small seat beside Shannon who looks frail and pale lying on the hospital bed. How many times did my dad have to do this for me? He never gets the chance to live a life outside a hospital. They both look dreadful and it makes my eyes well up with tears.

             
Shannon’s eyes flicker open slowly and her voice is croaky when she speaks, ‘Cassie.’ She smiles as best she can but even that looks like it hurts.

             
I dash over to her side and hug her as gently as I can so I don’t hurt her weak body. I want to embrace her tightly and in that moment I know what to do. It seems very clear to me what I have to do. There is a pair of nail scissors in the make up bag on the cabinet beside Shannon, I pull them out and drag the blade across the wrist. I smear the small spurt of blood that appears on my fingertip before the wound closes over again. ‘I know this is weird, Shannon, but you know I’m a Healer and I need you to take my blood. It will make you better.’

             
The Shannon that I know would normally protest to partaking in anything supernatural. After dad told her what happened to me and my mother with the vampires she shunned ever talking about anything out of the ordinary but she is dying and she needs to be there for her babies so she does’t fight it. I place my finger against her lips and she licks the salty blood off in a static movement. I cut myself and do this again three or four more times until I’m sure she has enough of my blood in her system to heal her. I hope it works.

             
Rose steps forward. I realise how crazy she looks now, her hair matted and her clothes stained with my blood. It’s my fault and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to apologise enough for the way I treated her today. ‘We should go, Cassie,’ she says softly. I know she doesn’t want to drag me away from my family. I’m not ready to leave them. I give her an understanding nod and she leaves me alone for a minute.

             
I tap dad’s shoulder to wake him up. His expression when he sees me is unreadable. It is a strange concoction of happiness, sadness and anger. ‘Cassie! You’re here!’ he says and he wraps his arms around me tightly. I’ve had to go through this one too many times with my dad. I wish he didn’t have to endure this pain that I am inflicting on him all the time.

             
‘I can’t stay long,’ I say. We have enough time for him to tell me that after the birth the doctors did some checks on her and discovered she has a tumour on one of her ovaries. They have removed it now but they can’t be sure that cancer hasn’t spread. I start crying again and I pray that my blood is enough to heal her. She can’t die. She is the glue that holds my crazy family together.

             
It pains me to say goodbye to my dad and Shannon but I promise them that everything will be okay and that I will be seeing them again very soon. I give them both one last kiss before closing the door. My heart breaks in two as I hear the door click shut.  What kind of life do I have that every time I say goodbye to my family I feat that it will be the last time? Life shouldn’t be this uncertain.

             
Once I’m back in the car and I’ve had a moment to gather my thoughts about Shannon’s illness and what it means to my family, I turn to Rose, the witch. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over the fact that my best friend, my hero, has been a witch this whole time and I never figured it out. I feel like I’ve been so wrapped up in my own problems, in being a Healer, that I forgot to look around me and observe the people I care about. Rose was a witch, Gabe never loved me, Oliver is... perfect.

             
I look at Rose and say, ‘I’m sorry, you know, for saying I hate you.’

             
‘I know,’ she doesn’t take her eyes off the road but she reaches her hand over the gearstick and strokes mine for a minute. ‘Don’t worry about it.’

             
‘No, I hate myself for saying that to you. I was horrible. You were just trying to make me
see
,’ I say emphatically. Rose was trying to make me understand what is only now sinking in. Rose recognised my self-absorption long before I did. She understood what I was giving up by having such a narrow mind and she tried to make me see and for a while I hated her for that. In a way I’m glad those vampires attacked me today because it was only through fear that I got the kick in the ass that I needed to realise who, and what, is important to me. ‘I see now.’

             
‘I hope you do,’ she says quietly. What more is she hiding? What more don’t I know or have I been blind to? ‘But you’re still not getting away with not telling me
everything.
’

             
And so she does. I learn more about Rose in the drive to Oliver’s house than I have the entire time I’ve known her. Rose comes from a long lineage of witches. She has travelled the world since she was born with her parents and her brother, Michael but then tragedy struck her family.

             
She was only seventeen; her family were practising a new spell, one that required all of their powers, but it went awry and her parents were killed and Michael was left severely disabled so Rose gave up magic. She saw firsthand, and felt the pain of, what being a witch could do and she hated it but she couldn’t give up the supernatural lifestyle. She loved travelling and meeting witches, werewolves, fairies and even vampires so she took a job with Maurice. She kept her witch heritage a secret though because Maurice would exploit her powers if he knew what she was capable of.

             
The only person she ever told about her powers to was Gabe. Although I’ve come to terms to the idea that Gabe and I will never be, my heart still skips a beat when I hear his name. She trusted him with her secret and that explains their close bond. They shared everything with one another. They had a connection that I envied so much.

             
Then I came along and when Gabe came to her on the night that I was dying and he asked her to help she couldn’t say no. ‘I couldn’t let you die, Cassie, I love you and so did Gabe. Using my powers was the last thing I wanted but I had to so I put a spell on the stakes that we drove through him and that was the only reason we all survived that night,’ Rose explains. Her voice wavers.

             
‘And what about Arrow? The spell she did on Gabe?’

             
‘That was her. I hate being a witch, Cassie, my powers killed my family and broke my brother too so I went to Arrow, she’s my second cousin, and she helped.’ There’s a pause. ‘You know I am so sorry for the way things ended up with you and Gabe. I do believe he loves you... It’s just not what you both want from life, you know? You think you had me fooled with Oliver but I always knew something was going on. I felt it and that’s why I always tried to tease it out of you. The thing is... with Gabe... you were frantic. Your eyes were wild and intense and you were terrified that he was going to do something stupid and hurt himself but the way you look at Oliver, when I saw you holding each other this morning, that’s comfortable and that’s warmth and that’s what Gabe wants for you, what you need.’

             
It makes perfect sense. She doesn’t have to tell me. I need to stop thinking that loving Oliver disregards what I ever felt for Gabe. It’s different. Gabe’s love is too fiery. It would be too easy to get burned but Oliver was good for me.               ‘And how did Oliver know I was in trouble with the vampires? How did you know?’