Family Magic (29 page)

I didn’t give a crap.

She scowled at me, pulling free of Brad.

“You’re done at this school,” she hissed.

I barked a laugh. “Yeah,” I shot back. “Heard
that one before. Feel like taking me on, Suzanne? Really?”

She backed down. They all did. Cowards.

I spun on Brad.

“I wanted to apologize for missing our date
last night,” I said, nice and loud so everyone would hear. “I had a
family emergency and had to stay home. I’m really sorry,” I
finished.

I turned and left before he had a chance to
say anything, not caring if he was going to or not. I walked away,
shoulders back, knowing I did what I could. It was a shame he
turned to the dark side but it wasn’t my problem anymore.

I had way bigger things to worry about than
the state of Brad Peters’ soul.

I made it to Chemistry and collapsed in my
chair. I didn’t hear a word my teacher said the entire period. Even
Quaid’s constant smirk had no effect on me.

Alison caught up to me as I left, her hand on
my arm pulling me around. I forgot she was even in my class and
glanced up from my floor stare into her eyes.

“Syd,” she said. “I heard what happened. Are
you okay?”

I shook my head and left the room as she
trailed along beside me.

“It doesn’t matter, Al,” I said. “I wish Brad
asked me what happened instead of being a jerk, but I guess I can’t
blame him.”

She hugged her books to her as I dumped my
stuff in my locker.

“Mind if I have lunch with you?” she
asked.

“Please,” I said. “Don’t leave me alone to
beat myself black and blue.”

We found a place on the back lawn on one of
the last nice days before the cold weather hit. As beautiful as it
was, the sun was barely warm enough to make sitting outside
possible. Even the slightest breeze would have sent us scurrying
back inside. But it was a perfect day. I was very happy to be in my
element.

“Suzanne’s going to think you had something
to do with everyone getting sick now after that comment,” Alison
said.

I shrugged. She had no idea how close she was
to the truth. “Let her. Wait a minute,” I said. “How did you know
what I said to her?”

Alison had the good grace to blush. “Sorry,
Syd,” she said. “I was there. I was going to jump in with you,” she
insisted. I believed her. “You kicked some serious butt before I
could do anything.”

“I guess.”

“Are you kidding me?” she said. “You rock,
Syd.”

She beamed at me so brightly I had to smile
back.

“We think so, too.”

I looked up into the little pack of outcasts
and knew I really did want to have friends after all.

“Thanks, Simon,” I said. “Want to have lunch
with us?”

That was that.

Being surrounded by people who didn’t care if
I was cool or not or had power or blue stripes or two heads was
really awesome when I settled in and became used to it. I sat back
and listened to the conversation around me and enjoyed my sandwich
and the sunshine. I tried not to think about betrayal or losing
myself and my mother.

“It’s a metaphysical change,” Pain said in
her gruff, deep voice.

“Paranormal, you know?” Blood agreed with
her.

I snapped into focus and jumped into the
conversation they were having with Beth.

“Sorry?” I asked. “What’s paranormal?”

Crap, what had I done, now?

“The gear,” Blood said, gesturing to himself
and his emo get up.

Okay, not me, just weird.

“Sorry, Blood,” I said. “I don’t get it.”

He nodded sagely, long hair hanging over his
blacked out eyes.

“It’s cool, Syd. Like, the transformation,
you know? Making the outside to match the inside.”

I tried to grasp it. “So, on the inside
you’re… black?”

He bobbed his head happily, exchanging a
glance with Pain. She smiled at me too.

“Yeah, Syd, yeah. You hear it, sister. Black.
Blacked out. Empty. Ready for the, you know, whatever power to come
and, like, fill up the hole, the chasm.”

“Right,” I tried to sound encouraging, but
wasn’t sure if I hit it.

“Parents don’t get it,” Pain assured me. She
could say that again.

“They hate the gear,” Blood agreed. “But only
because they don’t understand their own soul, you know? Like, they
are different people all the time, not real, you get it?”

I felt a twinge of something and reached for
it.

“Say again?” I asked, leaning in. This felt
important, really important. What was I missing?

“They, like, aren’t their real selves,” Pain
said while Blood’s hair swayed agreement. “Like, not the selves
they are when they say they love you and want to tuck you in at
night and, like, connect and stuff.”

“Lame,” Blood said, shaking his head.

“Yeah, lame,” Pain agreed. “They see the gear
and they lose it and they’re, like, they’re out, and someone else
is home.”

Everything clicked together in my head. I
gasped. Someone else is home… I realized my mistake. Mom hadn’t
been talking about me the night before when she said she knew what
it felt like to be taken.

She was talking about herself.

Mom told me not to trust her, not because of
what I thought happened, that she lost control of the spell that
hurt the twins, but because of what she
knew
happened.
Someone, the traitor, took control of my mother and she was
terrified there was going to be a repeat performance. That was why
she was so weird the afternoon before, so empty, so blank and out
of it. She wasn’t tired or affected by the attack.

She was taken.

I leapt to my feet, scattering the remains of
my lunch on the grass. My new friends were curious, but it was
Alison I turned to.

“Al,” I said, “I have to go home. Can you
cover for me this afternoon? Tell my teachers I had an
emergency?”

“Sure, Syd, is everything okay?”

I stopped for one second and tried to come up
with a reasonable answer.

“No,” I said, being honest. “But it will
be.”

I took off at a run for home, not caring what
they thought, what my teachers would think, wanting to get to my
mother.

How did the traitor get to her? She was the
most powerful witch around. I figured out this ‘whoever’ was also
able to cut through her wards, to hide from her in plain sight. I
was even more afraid.

The traitor was stronger than my mother.

I was so lost in thought, letting my body
run, turning my realizations over and over I almost missed the huge
black dog that leapt out of the end of a driveway and into my path.
I managed to skid to a halt out of reach of the shaggy, snarling
giant. I checked around for help but we were alone. I tried going
around him, making ‘good doggie’ noises, but he wasn’t having any.
He followed every move I made and threatened me with his huge teeth
every time I tried to get closer.

I had a tingling feeling in the back of my
mind that this dog was familiar but I couldn’t remember why.
Frustrated, I decided to call my demon to chase him off and hope
the neighbors didn’t notice.

I had just gathered myself when a woman and
her child came out of the house. The little girl started to
scream.

The dog saw her. With one final snarl, he
turned tail and ran off. I glanced up the driveway.

“Are you okay?” The woman asked, voice shaky,
clutching her daughter to her.

“Yeah,” I said. “Thank you. I thought he was
going to bite me.”

“I’ve seen that dog around but no one seems
to own him,” she said. “I’ll call the sheriff.”

“Thanks again,” I said. I ran the last block
home, cursing the stupid dog for holding me back.

But when I burst in the front door, calling
for my mother, I was met with silence.

Mom was already gone.

***

I paced the day away, wearing a track from my
room to the kitchen as I spent the next several hours waiting for
someone, anyone, to come home. Even Meira’s bus passed our house
without stopping.

I fretted over trying to find my mother. Why
couldn’t I ever convince her to carry a cell phone? If it had
anything to do with computers or technology, Mom was
way
old
fashioned. Which meant I was stuck in the dark, soon to be
literally, with no idea what was going on. My tentative tries to
reach her with my mind found nothing which meant she was either
heavily shielded or I was doing it wrong. And since my telepathy
was fed by my air magic, something I’d never really learned to use
long range, I knew I was pretty much out of luck unless I stumbled
on the answer by some happy accident. Trouble was, most of my
accidents had nothing to do with happy.

I did call around to Meira’s normal friends,
but no one had seen Mom or my sister.

When the sunset, I expected Uncle Frank and
Sunny to rise. At least they would be bodies to talk to, if not
warm ones. And Uncle Frank would probably know more than I did. Or,
at least, that was what I kept telling myself to keep from tearing
my hair out in frustration.

But when neither of the vampires made an
appearance by a half-hour after sunset, I decided to investigate. I
snuck into the basement, feeling somehow like an intruder despite
the fact it was my house too. I went to Uncle Frank’s cupboard. I
felt a little disoriented. Something in the basement wasn’t
right.

I understood at last. The cupboards were
gone.

It’s not like someone could have casually
walked in and helped themselves to the pair, either. They were a
matching set of handmade, solid cherry wardrobes, all the heavier
for the two vampire bodies inside. I was always grateful Uncle
Frank hated coffins and opted for cupboards instead, but at that
point I would have been happy to see him in a shoebox.

Now I was really worried. Had they simply not
been in their sleeping place it could have been that they stayed
somewhere else that day even though it wasn’t like them not to come
home. But the fact their cupboards were missing all together…
unless they decided to move them in the middle of the night and not
tell us, it was very possible Uncle Frank and Sunny joined
Sassafras on the missing list.

I went back upstairs and started pacing
again. I needed to talk to someone, but I didn’t dare call anyone
in the coven. What if I picked the wrong person? Alerted the
traitor?

By eight o’clock I couldn’t stand it anymore.
I decided the risk was worth it and called Erica’s.

It rang so many times I was sure she was
missing too. I almost hung up when I heard the click. A breathless
male voice said, “Hello?”

Crap. Jared. I drew a breath and risked
it.

“Hi, it’s Syd,” I said. “Is Erica there?”

“No,” he answered, sounding puzzled. “She’s
already at the site.”

“Site?” I asked. “What are you talking
about?”

“The ceremony,” he explained. “Syd, where are
you?”

“Home,” I said. “Alone. I can’t find anyone.
Meira’s not even here, or Gram.” I felt a little whiny when I said
it and hoped it wasn’t and wondered why I cared.

“That’s weird,” he said. “I’m on my way out
there. Do you want me to pick you up?”

I hesitated. Could I trust him? I took a
chance.

“Thanks, yeah,” I said.

“See you in a minute.” He hung up.

I grabbed a sweater and locked the house,
waiting for him on the porch. He pulled in a moment later in his
silver Volvo. He tooted the horn despite the fact I was sitting
right there.

I hated it when people did that. I climbed in
the front seat and put on my seat belt as Jared greeted me.

“Hey, Syd.”

“Hi,” I said.

He backed out of the driveway as he
spoke.

“You almost missed all the fun,” he said.

Fun? What was his problem? “What’s going on?”
I asked.

He watched the road. “Your mother is having a
ceremony to cleanse the coven.”

And she didn’t include me. So that meant
either she was trying to keep me out of it or she was taken again
and whoever the traitor was didn’t want me there. Didn’t matter
which. I was going.

“How’s school?” I didn’t appreciate his
attempts at small talk but figured if he was nice enough to drive
me I should at least make an effort.

“Okay,” I said.

“Cool,” he said. I winced. Grownups should
never say "cool". Ever.

“How about soccer? You were quite the player
the other day.”

I decided I stretched my good will about as
far as I could.

“I’m a little worried about Mom right now,” I
said. “If you don’t mind.”

He glanced at me out of the corner of his
eye. “Sorry, Syd,” he said. “Just trying to keep it light.”

“Don’t bother,” I replied.

“Fair enough. We’re all worried, you
know.”

I gazed out the window, staring into the
darkness, trying to ignore him. I know, I wasn’t being very
charitable, considering. Still, he took the hint and fell
silent.

The rest of the ten-minute drive went by in
total quiet. I watched the streetlights get further apart as we
came to the edge of town and disappear altogether when we hit the
countryside. The new site chosen for our major Sabbath celebrations
was far enough outside of town to keep us from prying eyes. Owned
by the coven, it was warded so no one would trespass. I knew that
part of the ritual for cleansing the site for our use also put up
gentle barriers that encouraged normals to stay away if they
happened across our land. Nothing overt, just a nudge that made
them want to walk in the opposite direction.

Jared slowed the car and turned down a dark
dirt lane I would have missed. I held on over the bumps but only
had to endure the rough ride for a minute. The site came into view
up ahead, packed with cars. A large bonfire lit everything. Someone
set the Samhain fire alight a night too early and I wondered.
Another would have to be built, power cast. It seemed like such a
waste.