Flames in the Midst (The Jade Hale Series) (3 page)

Now those same green eyes were peering out at me, a look of relief on my child face.  The little girl I was still had the red hair, but the college student I had grown into did not.  I routinely dyed it a dark brown or black color.  The green eyes I occasionally turned blue with colored contacts, but
those often created a feeling of vertigo due to the constant presence of my gift of aura reading.  I was not wearing the contacts tonight, so I looked into my child eyes with the same green eyes staring back at me.  It was all very surreal.

My mother took the look of relief on little Jade’s face to be meant for her return and the intense study of me to be
curiosity.

“Jade, honey,” she cooed at the girl as she lifted her onto a bar stool next to Madilyn, “I promised you I would be back safe and sound tonight.  I hope you were a good girl for Professor Michaels.”

“She always is,” sounded a deep male voice as the door to the back of the bar opened up and Professor Michaels entered the room.  I shivered and stepped backward a moment.  I could not remember much about this man who died tonight with my mother, but I had a bad feeling about him.  I could not see his aura, just as I could no longer see the auras of those around me.  I thought I caught a glimpse of that same deep, dark black as he entered the room, but I couldn’t be sure. 

Cameron
took up residence back behind the bar, having finished the spell to secure the front of the Professor’s Pub.  He looked down at the glasses he was cleaning, neat curls of dark hair bobbing around the chiseled structure of his face.  He put the glass he was cleaning back behind the bar, glanced at the professor, and started making another drink.

“Evan and Jade,” my mother had more introductions to make, “this is Jasmine,” she gestured towards me, “and this is Madilyn.”  Then she turned to Madilyn and me.  “
This is Professor Evan Michaels; he owns this bar, and this is my lovely daughter, Jade.”  I smiled at myself.  I was starting to enjoy these few moments around my mother and my aunt despite the fact I knew they would not last long.  Longing and dread filled my head, but my heart just wanted to hold on to this moment.

“Diana?” Professor Michaels asked with a hint of suspicion and curiosity in his voice. “I thought you said you were only bringing back one Unknown tonight.  Did something go wrong?” 
He looked toward Cameron for half a second as he asked the last question.  Cameron looked back down at the drink he was preparing.

“We rescued Madilyn tonight, and Jasmine came to us as a stranger seeking solace.”

“Really?  How is that possible with the spell on the storefront?” Again, he seemed to glare at Cameron.

Now Cameron sprung into action, handing Evan the drink he had been mixing. 

“I must have forgotten the fourth door,” he explained, “I was so busy tonight.  I guess it’s a good thing I did since we have one more here tonight.”  At this, the professor smiled in agreement, but I suddenly realized Cameron did not mean it was a good thing I was here tonight for the sake of the Guardians or for my own sake.  He knew what was going to happen tonight as sure as I did, and I could only guess he hoped I would be one more to perish.  His aura of gray storm clouds could only be one of evil.  I know I started a fire tonight, but maybe this is what Aunt Lynn meant when she said my mother’s death was not my fault.  Professor Michaels and my mother may have been victims of Cameron, a fighter on the side of evil and an infiltrator of my mother’s group.  But wasn’t the professor Cameron’s father?  Did he mean for him to die tonight, too, or was that an accident?  One thing was for sure.  Cameron was an enemy, but I couldn’t be sure who else was also an enemy tonight.  My mother, my aunt, and Jade—I had to think of her as a separate entity for the time being—were the only ones I could be sure were on my side.

“Well?” Aunt Lynn asked, “Are we ready for the meeting?  We have a long night ahead of us.  We don’t travel after a rescue for at least twelve hours and we keep a constant watch,” she explained to me.  “Are you staying or moving on?”

“I’ll stay,” I answered, eyeing Cameron behind the bar.  It was my turn to stare him down, but he just smiled and continued to work.  He began mixing drinks again and placed one on the bar in front of me.   I eyed the drink with trepidation.

“Don’t worry,” Cameron chuckled, “It’s just lemonade.  You don’t look
old enough for anything stronger quite yet.”  However, I wasn’t thinking about whether or not I should drink anything with alcohol in it.  I was worried Cameron might have done something to my drink.  I hesitated long enough he must have realized what I was thinking.

“I swear, it’s fine,” he said, lifting my glass to his lips and chugging every drop of lemonade.  He picked up the pitcher from behind the bar and refilled the glass.  I picked it up
, not sure if I would drink from it, and moved to the nearby table where everyone gathered.  Madilyn seemed more relaxed since Professor Michaels had joined the group.

“Professor Michaels,” Madilyn began now as the group settled into the chairs around the table.  She had not spoken since I had arrived.  Professor Michaels, or Evan as my mother referred to him, smiled at Madilyn to indicate she should go on.  “Were you a professor at Wake
Forest?  You look so familiar.  I think I took one of your courses about a year and a half ago.  It was a class about Shakespeare.”

Evan sat down in the chair next to Madilyn, “My dear, yes, I was a professor at Wake Forest for a short period.”  Madilyn looked relieved.  “You see, back then, I was just like you.  I was an Unknown.  I had no idea I had the abilities of a witch.  If you had told me such a thing was real, I would have laughed and sworn you were putting me on after reading
MacBeth
in my course.  Then, one night I met Diana and something inside me knew I needed to take this woman out for a cup of coffee.  Little did I know she had tracked me down and our meeting was no coincidence—nor was my desire for the coffee.”  A warm and welcoming smile played at the edge of his lips.

“Diana began explaining to me all of the intricacies of witches, the Unknowns, the Guardians and the Shadow Rulers.  I don’t know why, but I believed her.  As she spoke, I could envision this invisible world surrounding me, one to which I was both an outsider and a long lost brother.   The picture she painted of this world made my existence seem inconsequential, so I knew I had to do something.”  He looked at my mother
as if exchanging a secret between their glances.  I cringed.  I had never really known my father, but this man had never stepped into that empty slot either.

“So you didn’t even need any proof?  You weren’t being chased?” Madilyn leaned in towards the table.  Her thin hands gripped her glass, but she was no longer shaking.  Dark waves of hair billowed around her face like clouds around the sun and her eyes shone with true interest and awe.  She transformed before my eyes from a terrified twenty-something woman into an eager new witch.  What was it about Professor Michaels that was setting her at ease?  Was it
their similarity?  They both began the same way, as Unknowns.  Was it their shared past?  His was the one face in the room she could find familiar.

“Quite on the contrary,” Evan laughed.  “According to Diana, I was being chased that very night.  I didn’t need proof.  I believed her right away, but she walked with me that evening in an empty park and performed a few spells.  If I hadn’t believed her before that walk, I would have been cowering in disbelief as my world was shattered.  However, the minute she introduced herself, I already knew my world had been turned into shards of what it used to be; when we spoke over coffee, I realized how drastically my ideals were being destroyed.”

“I never saw the Shadow Ruler who was chasing me.  Diana performed a few spells to help protect me, and I began studying under her and Lynn.  Apparently, the Shadow Ruler was working alone and did not want to approach us together because Diana was soon able to sense his departure.  At the end of the semester, I resigned from my position. 
MacBeth
no longer had the same meaning for me when I realized the witches could have really been the root of his demise.  I bought this place and named it the Professor’s Pub in remembrance of my former life.  I sold my house, and Cameron and I moved into the rooms behind the bar.”  Evan smiled at his son.  Cameron smiled back, but he seemed to be forcing the smile out.  It was for show.

My mother sat next to Evan and patted his arm.  “He is really being very modest,” she confided to Madilyn and me, “He gave up his entire life to create this new one that suits the purpose of the Guardians.  This place serves as a refuge for us
and others.  It is very difficult to find if you are a Shadow Ruler.  But don’t let him fool you.  Being a witch isn’t all about sacrifice.  We have enchantments on the back kitchen and office.  When you go back there, you will find a whole house full of rooms, many of them brimming with Evan’s books, both from his past life and his present life.”

I sipped my lemonade and looked from the professor to my mother and my aunt.  My aunt was sitting right here at this table to hear these stories, and she must have known them already anyway. 
Why had I never heard any of this?
  She never said a word about the professor or Cameron or Madilyn or any of the others.
What really happened here tonight?
  I tried to figure it out with each word and each move Cameron made. 

Amy and Justin were the last to join the table.  With nine of us crowded around the old wooden table, my mother took charge.

“We are here tonight to celebrate,” she smiled and raised her glass.  Everyone cheered a little and raised their glasses as well, except Madilyn, who had retreated back into herself.  “Honey,” she addressed Madilyn, “I know this is a rough night for you.  I know we have just changed everything in your world, and you need to know your choices.  We’ll talk about that soon, but for now, celebrate with us.  This was one of our closest rescues, but here you are, safe amongst new friends.”  My mother’s smile was radiant and beautiful.  Her lips were naturally a deep pink and were moist from her drink.  She could have just stepped away from a make-up artist at this moment, but this wasn’t a movie or a dream.  Sooner rather than later, things were about to turn sour.

Looking around, I realized Jade was missing.

“Where am, I mean, where did Jade go?” I asked my mother.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my aunt staring at me again. 
She had better figure this out soon.
  I wanted to talk to her about what was happening here, but she had to figure it out first.

“Oh,” my mother smiled, “She loves to hide in the back rooms with all the books.  She’s not really a people person.”  At least that much had stayed the same. 

“Where is Jade’s father?” Madilyn asked, looking worried and frightened again.  “Was he killed?”

“No, honey,” my mother looked at Madilyn with a maternal care that created a jealous feeling in my gut and a lump in my throat.  She knew that Madilyn, though certainly older than I, was like a child tonight.  This was her birth into a world her ancestors had abandoned hundreds of years ago.

“Some things are just normal and ordinary.  My husband and I divorced, and he is not a part of our lives.”

Of course, my mother was leaving one major component out.  Just as I was the cause of my mother’s death tonight, I was also the cause of my father’s abandonment. 
My rare gift clued him in to the fact my mother and I were both witches.  I don’t even remember him—just the story of his leaving.  The first time I set my crib on fire, my mother was able to convince him there had been an electrical short.  They were lucky I made it out alive.  The second time it happened, he wasn’t so sure that coincidence was a word he was comfortable with.  By the third time, he demanded to know the truth.  He packed his things and left that night. 

He came back three days later and explained their marriage was over.  He was angry she had kept such an important secret from him, but he could eventually forgive her for that.  He decided he could not live in her world.  He did not want witches and magic to be real.  He promised, of course, to keep our secret in order to protect his daughter and out of a lingering love for my mother, but he wanted nothing more to do with us.  We never saw him again.

As I thought about my father, the room grew dim.  Something was wrong, but I couldn’t place my finger on it.  I heard the voices of my mother and my aunt.  I heard them discussing near misses and Shadow Rulers.  I heard bits of an explanation about the Guardians and the choice Madilyn and Jeffery would have to make.  Their voices seemed to be getting further away as the room grew darker and my eyes fought to remain open. 
Maybe I was really having a nightmare.  Maybe I wasn’t really a time traveler.  Maybe I would wake up back at Zach’s place.
  Then I heard his voice, and it all came together like discovering the course of an intricate design of dominos.

“She must have had some journey to reach us,” Cameron was saying as he lifted me in his arms, “I’ll just make her comfortable in one of the booths.”  I wanted to scream and fight against his warm chest.  I wanted to break free and accuse him of what I knew he had done.  It was the lemonade.  There was something in it, and now I wasn’t going to have a chance to expose him for what he was and save my mother.

As he placed me gently in one of the booths, I heard him whisper to me before I slipped into unconsciousness.