Enchant Me (20 page)

“Keith, can you carry her all the way to the
circle?” My grandmother asked him.

I tried to look over at her but my vision was
doing strange things. I would see her in front of us, then behind
us, older, then younger than she was now. I saw the future and the
past. Sometimes the images were only a couple minutes ahead or
behind, but some were obviously years apart. The walk to the
fire pit where we had our circle, was almost as bad as the drive
here. Keith did his best to hold me away from his body, trying to
reduce the amount of joggling, but it wasn’t really helping much. I
wanted to apologize for not being able to walk myself, but the pain
in my head was starting to come in sharp little bursts that made me
gasp. Finally we reached the circle; a small fire had already
been lit. A long rug on the ground next to it. It was here that
Keith gently deposited me and stepped back. I lay down on my back
on the rug, barely noticing when my grandmother kneeled next to me.
Softly she let Cody down on the rug. He sat alongside me, curling
his tail around his legs, absorbed with the flickering fire behind
me. Carefully I turned my head to glance at my
grandmother.

“Why here?”

I was comforted by the fact her eyes
reflected expectation and not worry as she brushed my hair back
from my face.

“I wanted you in the protection of the oak
trees,” she said, looking around at the large oaks surrounding us.
“I have a tea I want you to drink, it will help relax
you.” 

She opened a silver flask, and lifting my
head, slowly poured a minty-herbal concoction down my throat. It
didn’t taste too bad and the water felt so good on my parched
throat. “Alexis, it’s not something we would normally do, but
I want to create a circle of protection with Labradorite and
Moonstone. They are both supposed to protect and enhance intuition
and psychic perception.”

Personally, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to
enhance my gifts anymore but I didn’t seem to have a choice
anyways. I watched lethargically as they started to place the
stones in a circle just inside of the large boulder seats. I also
noticed Marie, one of the oldest in our grove, sprinkling salt
along the border of stones, another sort of protection I assumed. I
could hear my grandmother calling to the elements, imploring them
for aid. Then I remembered; as my powers reached their peak, I
could be vulnerable to negative energies or spirits. As if I needed
anything else to worry about. Eventually they seemed to be
done and took their places on the boulder seats, closing their eyes
in meditation or prayer. I couldn’t really tell.

I groaned and turned to look up at the
starlit sky as the pain started to come in deep waves, first just
in my mind, then it started sweeping my body. I tossed and turned
on the rug, but no position brought relief. The visions
started to hit me hard now. One after the other, it was almost like
now that I had stopped fighting it, the ones that I was supposed to
see before, I was seeing now. They were still coming so fast that I
couldn’t make sense of any of it. I could only recognize a couple
of events that had already happened. The constant roar in my ears
was changing to actual sounds and voices for the visions, but it
was still garbled and indistinct. It was frustrating. My heart beat
so fast I found myself fighting to catch my breath. I felt like if
only I could see and understand the visions then I would burst free
of this pain. After what seemed like hours I realized I was
becoming weaker, losing track of time.

How many hours had I endured already? I
wasn’t sure if my grandmother’s tea had some sedative in it, or
that I was starting to pass out, but I had the feeling as I looked
at the faces around me that something was wrong. Even Grandma Anne
looked worried. I could hear her speaking in low tones to
Charles. 

“She’s becoming weaker; it shouldn’t be
taking this long. I don’t know how much more she can physically
take.” 

I watched helplessly as Charles patted her
knee but said nothing. She was right; I no longer had the strength
to even move in discomfort. I felt like a rag doll that had been
thrown upon the ground, no longer moving, not even blinking my
eyes. I became conscious of the fact that I may die here
tonight…

My mind started to drift-- Christian…I would
never see him again. At least I had told him that I loved him. I
would never know all the things he wanted to tell me, but I knew he
loved me. I brought to mind everything about him and us. How we
met, kissed, talked, laughed and loved. I thought about that bond
between us and called to him in my mind, praying somehow he would
hear me. Christian, I love you… goodbye. 

As if even that effort cost me, I shuddered
and felt myself start to fade, just as a last vision developed
within my mind. It was that same vision of Christian in the forest,
except the voices rang clear now, but I ignored them as I really
looked at Christian this time. The way he was clutched his head,
the pain he seemed to be in. Just like… me. A thousand
questions filled my mind, but the vision hadn’t ended. Weakly I
concentrated as hard as I could to swing it around so I could see
his parents. Finally they came into view, screaming profanities and
clutching their own heads like they were going mad. As I watched
helpless and horrified, they attacked each other and I forced the
vision away. I didn’t need to see the rest to know how they died
now. If it was true that Christian had some type of mental powers
like me, what were they? I remembered reading that Druids were once
thought to be able to cause madness. It had been a great gift to
use during a battle to render your enemy paralyzed and ineffective.
When Christian had come into his powers they must have been so
powerful that they had affected anyone nearby. This was why he
blamed himself; this was the darkness that he fought. There was no
way he could have controlled it. I wished I would live to tell him
that it wasn’t his fault. 

I tried to signal and call my grandmother
over but my voice wouldn’t come and my body wouldn’t move. I heard
a loud rustling going through the trees around us and the
frightened murmurs of the grove. Cody stood up and paced in front
of me; all his hair standing on end, hissing at the darkness. In
keeping with my luck, especially on my death bed, I knew something
dark was here, something evil. Opening my eyes, I glanced up and
saw a dark, murky haze rush between the trees’ limbs, then stop to
coil about the leaves only to wind around our circle again. Almost
beyond caring if the damn thing got me, I looked over at my
grandmother. Her face was defiant-- and worried. She looked down at
me and shuddered, tears tracked down her face.

I could hear Cody’s soft mews as he paced
next to me. He knew too, that I couldn’t last much longer. I
probably looked the definition of death warmed over. I wanted to
tell them to just let me go, but the words wouldn’t come. My vision
was fading, my heart slowing, I wasn’t even sweating any more. I
felt the chill of the wind against my skin. In detached
fascination, I watched as the haze hissed and suddenly broke
through the trees, now it was within our first circle. As time went
on, more dark wraiths appeared. I could feel the gush of the wind
as they passed, now circling the stone ring around me. They were
waiting for me to hit my weakest point physically, but strongest
point psychically. At least they didn’t seem to be a danger to my
friends and family, only to me… I closed my eyes for the last
time. 

“Alexis!”

I thought I heard Christian screaming my name
but I was falling now, whatever vision I was supposed to have of
him would go unseen.

“Alexis! What the hell is going on here?”

“No! Stop! You’ll only endanger her more if
you open the circle!” screamed my grandmother. 

“I can help her!”

“Wait Anne, he’s right I can sense his gift,
there’s something different about him,” this from
Charles. 

Not comprehending what was being said around
me, I felt him kneel next to me, his scent wrap around me, warm
hands on my shoulders lifting me up. Certain I was dreaming, I
smiled inwardly, glad that my last thoughts were of him. 

“Alexis!”

I murmured in irritation, I didn’t want the
feeling of peace to go away. There was no more pain, no more
fear.

“Damn it Lex, wake up!” He yelled in my
face. Wait—wait-- he was here, really here. I started to fight
the lethargy that had me. “That’s it Lex, wake up!”

Opening my eyes to his wonderful face was
worth the pain that came rushing back in. Well… it was for the
first couple of seconds. Then it was unbearable. I felt like I was
being destroyed from the inside out. I tried to concentrate on his
beautiful dark eyes but everything was getting blurry. He
eased me back down on the rug, his hands gently grasping my head,
thumbs massaging my temples.

“Lex, I am going to help you but you need to
relax as best you can and let me in.”

“What do you mean?” I rasped.

I started to feel faint again, my eyes having
no strength to stay open. I could still hear the dark wraiths
hissing outside my circle, waiting for me.

 “No time to explain, just don’t fight
me,” he demanded. 

Abruptly I felt like the roof of my mind had
been ripped away. I screamed from the pain and when I felt a
presence in my mind that wasn’t my own, instinctively I started to
struggle physically and mentally against him, but it was too late.
He was doing something to my gift, attacking it, barring it. The
wraiths seemed to sense the weakening of power, the blocking of my
gift, and with one last hiss of anger and frustration, they
dissipated into the air. Then suddenly I was set adrift…The
pain was gone; I felt light and free-- normal. Bewildered I opened
my eyes to look at him. He had removed his hands from my head and
sat back on his heels. His head was tipped down, dark hair falling
in front of his face. His hands seemed to be gripping his thighs
while he shuddered. After a moment he took a deep breath, slowly
exhaling, and the shuddering stopped. He was in control again. He
looked up then, his chocolaty brown eyes intense.

“How do you feel?”

I started to tell him ‘good,’ when all the
sudden my body shook and locked down. It was like I was paralyzed
and I started to feel sick with fear again. There was a different
sort of pain in my mind now, and there was also pain throughout my
body, but it concentrated in my hands. I could hear my grandmother
ask him what was going on, but he didn’t answer. Helplessly I
watched as Christian leaned back over me. Although I knew what was
coming I still found myself tensing, instinctively trying to put up
mental barriers, but he blasted right through them. Not meaning to,
I think I may have cursed him and particular parts of his anatomy,
but I couldn’t be sure. He seemed to take longer than before, but I
could already feel the pain ebbing away. 

“It’s a second power,” he said in a hushed,
awed tone. “It’s mental and physical. I think it’s…telekinesis?” He
removed his hands and looked at me in a reverential way that almost
made me feel uncomfortable. Everyone looked at me like I was some
fascinating alien. “How are you doing now?”

Stunned, I lifted up onto an elbow, staring
at him, still not comprehending what he had done. “Good. What did
you do to me?”

I noticed Cody was sitting against his leg,
staring at me, his purring, loud and happy. He didn’t answer.
Instead he put his hands underneath my arms, lifted me to my knees
and threw his arms around me, squeezing me so hard I almost
couldn’t breathe. I wrapped my arms around his neck and showered
his face with kisses. 

“I love you,” I whispered.

 “I thought I lost you,” he
murmured. 

“You almost did,” I replied.

Before I could ask what he did again, my
grandmother crying rather noisily, threw her arms around both of
us, strangling us more than hugging us. 

“I don’t understand,” she sniffed while
Charles pulled at her trying to make sure we had room to breathe.
Looking around, I saw the same thankful but confused expressions on
everyone’s faces. 

“Shaman,” I heard someone whisper.

 Looking away from my grandmother, I
turned to stare at him. “Christian, what did you do?”

He sat down and pulled me onto his lap. Then
Cody jumped into mine, circled into a little ball and fell quickly
to sleep. I smiled, comforted and glanced back up at Christian when
he spoke, “You could say I built a dam in your mind.”

I blinked up at him in confusion. “Your
powers are still here,” he said, gently tapping my head, “but they
are blocked right now. We will slowly open the gates back open as
you’re ready”. His grip around my body got tighter. “Why didn’t you
call me?” he asked, his voice getting louder with every word.

“How was I supposed to know you are a
Shaman?” I asked, exasperated. His brows crashed down and fury
sparked in his eyes.

“You should’ve called me no matter what.”

He had a point. If our situation had been
reversed I would have expected the same. The last thing I wanted to
do with him was argue so… since he was right and I was wrong, I
decided my best bet was to appease and charm him. “You’re really
sexy when you’re angry, you know that?”

“Lex,” he warned.

“I promise, in the future I will always let
you know,” I said softly, sincerely. 

“Deal,” he grumbled. I could tell he still
wasn’t entirely pleased but he was willing to let it go.

Looking up at his gorgeous face, I studied
him, wanting to assure myself that he was not harmed for helping
me. “Are you ok?”

Skimming a couple kisses across my forehead,
then looking deep into my eyes, he reassured me, “I’m fine, it just
took me a couple seconds to--feel comfortable with it.”

I could only imagine. Glancing around I
noticed the grove had sat down on the ground around us, smiling, at
ease now. As I looked at Christian and the people of my grove, I
realized I could sense who had gifts and who didn’t, just like my
grandmother had said. It was a weird sensation like some kind of
internal alarm system. The sun was already starting to rise,
the light twining through the darkness. As much as I usually hated
mornings, this would be one that I would remember with happiness
for the rest of my life. I felt the love and devotion radiating
from Christian.