Something Witchy (Mystics & Mayhem) (37 page)

I took all three sounds as a
very
bad sign.  I wiggled my toes and was relieved to find they were still there.  I reached down, keeping my eyes closed, and was even more relieved to find I hadn’t grown any feelers of any kind.

Okay, how bad could it be then?

I opened my eyes and stared in horror at the leg before me.  It was the most shocking shade of purple I have ever seen.  Not only was it bright purple, it also seemed to have doubled, maybe even tripled, in size.  The panic attack that had been looming over me, just waiting for its chance, finally hit and I started to hyperventilate. 

“It’s not as bad as it looks, dear,” Mrs. Amelia said, not quite meeting my eyes. 

“Not as bad as it looks?!” I shrieked, jumping out of Nathan’s lap and glaring down at her.  “How can you
say
that?  I look like half an elephant!  This is as bad as it gets!”

“I have to agree with her,” Tyler volunteered, grimacing.  “That’s pretty damn bad, Amelia.”

“Ember, baby, calm down,” Nathan said soothingly, shooting Tyler a deadly look that told him to shut up better than words ever could.  “It’s going to be all right.  I’m sure there’s a simple solution.  If Amelia can’t undo it, I’m sure Shea can.  Just…don’t panic.”

Unfortunately for him, I could hear the laughter in his voice.  The look I leveled at him was so full of anger and violence that he actually flinched away from it, all amusement gone in a puff of smoke.

And speaking of smoke…

“What the hell is wrong with my hands?” I demanded, shrilly, noticing for the first time that they
were
actually smoking.

I became totally hysterical.  Unfortunately, the more frantic I became, the more smoke I seemed to be producing.  And then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, I felt the heat from my hands starting to spread through my entire body. 

Nathan jumped up about the time I burst into flames. 

But I wasn’t in the attic anymore.  I was back in that room with the girl from my dreams, watching as the fire crept closer and closer to me.  Then, I was back on that stage of horrors where Jack had tried to roast me, feeling the heat of the flames as they surrounded me. 

And then, I saw a scene I’d never seen before.  I was on a hill overlooking some kind of plantation or something, tied to a stake.  I was staring stonily ahead of me, not even paying attention to the flames as they ate at my clothing.  I saw nothing but the man riding toward me, knowing that by the time he reached me it would be too late.  I didn’t even take my eyes off him when the fire reached my skin.  As long as he was there, where I could see him, I could die with dignity. 

But, I couldn’t.  I couldn’t take the feeling of those flames consuming me.  I just couldn’t.  Terrified tears welled up in my eyes and immediately blurred into steam, making it impossible to see him anymore.

And that’s when I started to scream.

Em, stop. 
Nathan’s voice brushed my mind again, sounding sweet and so very sad, snapping me out of my vision and back to the very fiery present. 
Just stop for a second and take a breath,
he continued, trying to calm me down
.  You’re not burning, baby.  Feel the flames and let it calm you.  I know you’re scared, but you have to breathe.  It’s the only way to put out the flames.

Breathe? Was he
kidding
? 

“I don’t think she likes that much, bloodsucker,” Tyler observed, looking slightly panicked.  I was glad to see that
one
of them was.

“I know she doesn’t like it,” Nathan snapped.  “She’s terrified of it, that’s why she can’t control it!”

“Then do something about it!” Tyler snapped back.  When Nathan didn’t move, he turned and ran into the bathroom with a muttered, “Fine.  I’ll do it myself.”

I heard the tap come on in the sink, but it didn’t really register until he ran back out with an old ice bucket in his hands and flung the contents directly into my face.  The flames went out as soon as the water hit me, the icy coldness of it serving the dual purpose of putting out the fire and snapping me out of my hysterics. 

The second the flames went out, so did my knees.  Tyler and Nathan both reached out to stop my fall but it was Tyler who caught me.  Very gently, he lowered me to the floor and brushed my dripping curls back from my face.

“How you doing, beautiful?” he asked softly when I just stared up at him, the terror in my eyes making him wince.

“I’m wet,” I croaked hoarsely, trying to give him a weak smile. There was a real note of relief in his answering chuckle. 

“Yes, you are,” he said sitting down next to me and taking my hand in his.   “And cold.”

“Here, baby,” Nathan said, kneeling on my other side and covering me with the blanket from the bed.  He was very careful to tuck it in all around me—a not-so-subtle way of making Tyler let go of my hand.  When Tyler just grinned and shifted so I could use his thigh as a pillow, Nathan looked like he was contemplating giving him another beating.  Instead, he turned to look at Mrs. Amelia where she stood, watching the three of us.  With a strained expression, he said, “Call Shea.  Tell her she needs to be on the first flight out.”

“Of course,” she said, bustling toward the door without really looking at me.  “What precisely should I tell her is the reason for such haste?”

“Tell her the meeting’s been set,” Nathan said, turning back to look at me again.  The fear and sadness in his eyes caused my heart to ache a little.  “She’ll understand.”

“Very well,” she said solemnly without looking back. 

“Oh, and Amelia?” Nathan called as she reached the top of the stairs and started down.  She stopped, her shoulders tense.  I frowned at the display, wondering what her problem was, but then she turned and smiled at us so sweetly that I thought maybe I’d imagined it.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Tell her to hurry up,” Nathan said, catching my gaze and trapping it in his.  “We’re out of time.”

Mr. Right

Once I was dry and had stopped shaking like a leaf—mostly—Tyler and Nathan confiscated all of my energy supplements and pretty much tucked me in and commanded me to go to sleep, promising they would stand guard.  Even after they’d left, though, I continued to try to force my eyes to stay open, but in the end I lost the battle and slipped into a dreamless, and thankfully Jack-less, coma.

When I woke up, it was to the sight of my grandmother’s smiling face.  She was running her fingers through my long curls and I felt like a little girl again, surrounded by Grams’ warmth and love, safe in the knowledge that she would never let anything hurt me.  There was a wealth of fear in her sparkling green eyes, and I knew without asking that she had been told about Jack’s visit the night before.

“I have a surprise for you,” she said with a soft smile.

Not another one,
I thought with a groan.

“What
now
?” I demanded, sitting up in the bed and giving her a dark look.  “Because, seriously, I think I’ve had about all the surprises I can stand, thank you very much.”

She rolled her eyes at my theatrics and threw the covers back.  I laughed in delight and relief when I saw that my leg had been returned to its normal size and color.  I didn’t know how she had done it, but I would love her forever and ever for it.  I had already decided that if it couldn’t be reversed I was going to run away, change my name, and join the carnival.  I had even picked out my stage name:  The Amazing Purple Elephant Girl.  I was glad I wasn’t going to be forced to such drastic measures.

“I hear you had quite the night,” Grams said, standing and walking over to the French doors Nathan and Tyler had boarded up for me the night before.  She threw them open, letting in the sunshine and fresh air beyond, and I suddenly realized how claustrophobic the room had been with them closed.  “Just so you know, Nathan is downstairs plotting to abduct you again the first chance he gets.  He’s quite adamant that you’re not going to war with your demon this morning, so prepare yourself.  If it hadn’t been for your new friend, Tyler, running interference last night, I think you would have woken up somewhere very different this morning.”

“Yeah, probably the dungeon of Castle Dracula,” I muttered, getting up and stretching.  I checked the neckline of my hoodie as I lowered my arms and was glad to find that it covered my mark.  Grams had yet to see that tell-tale little sign that Nathan owned me, and I really didn’t want to get into it right that second.  “Tell me something, Grams.  Is he brain damaged or something?  Or is it that he’s just too stupid to understand the word no?”

“I told you, he knows something you haven’t come to realize yet, Ember,” she said, staring out at the fabulous view of the town of Moonlight I had from the widow’s walk.  “Of course, I don’t know how you’ve remained oblivious this long.  The truth is so obvious a blind man could see it.  Until you’re ready to face it, though, it wouldn’t hurt you to cut him a little slack.  He really is trying, sweetheart.”

“Yeah, sure he is,” I muttered, thinking of my mark and the invisible strings Nathan held in his oh-so-not-capable hands.  Not wanting to discuss Sir Sucks-A-Lot anymore, I decided to change the subject to one I really wanted to discuss even less.  “Grams?   If I’m so frigging all-powerful, why don’t my powers work right?”

“Because of the bind I placed on you,” she said, turning to give me a contemplative look over her shoulder.  “You haven’t even begun to discover your abilities yet.”

“Haven’t begun to discover my abilities?” I repeated with a bitter laugh.  “Do you know what happened to me last night?   I caught on
fire,
Grams!  Like,
literally on fire
!”

When her eyes flared wide with shock, I decided they hadn’t told her everything about the night before after all.  I waited for her to explain it.  I
needed
her to explain it.  She could have used sign language, Morse code, smoke signals…
anything
.  I would have been fine if she’d written out an explanation in hieroglyphics.  Instead, she just stood there and looked at me like she was really seeing me for the first time.

“Don’t just stand there!” I yelled.  “Explain, Grams!  How did I do that?”

“That isn’t possible,” she murmured, looking worried.  “The bind I put on you as a child was exceptionally powerful due to your abilities.  It has to be removed in stages, the first of which began when Nathan revealed you were a bandraoi.  You should be nowhere near the stage that would allow you to summon an element.”

“Yeah, well, I think I must have skipped a couple because I looked like a total
freak
,” I snapped, wondering if she was ever going to give me a straight answer to a question. 

Suddenly, it was all too much.  I couldn’t deal anymore.  I wanted to be the person I had been a week ago, dealing with the unhappy dead and not a murderous, delusional demon.  I didn’t want to be a blood witch.  I wanted the only vampires in my life to be the ones I read about in books and saw in movies.

  I.  Just.  Wanted.  To.  Be. 
Normal
.

Just to prove that I wasn’t, I felt that terrible pressure starting to build in my chest again.  My heart started slamming against my ribcage like it was trying to beat its way out of my chest and my whole body felt like I was standing on the surface of the sun. 

I was losing it.  Again.  Fabulous!

Ember? 
The silky sound of Nathan’s voice in my mind took me by surprise, but it wasn’t enough to help me. 
Ember!  Baby, what’s wrong?

I winced when I realized he was picking up on my panic and then decided I didn’t care.  What difference did it make?  In about ten seconds I was going to self-destruct, anyway. 

Please help me!

I hadn’t meant to call him to me, but something inside me must have known I was about to need him in the worst way.  He had played a major part in the destruction of my life, but that didn’t seem to matter.  I knew in a way that I wasn’t ready to examine that he could help me.  I didn’t want to give him that much power over me, but I really didn’t have a choice.

Aw, hell.  I
needed
him.

By the time he walked into the room, that terrible pressure in my chest was making me feel dizzy and my heart was racing a mile a minute.  I shot him a frantic look and he started toward me slowly, his eyes full of…fear.

Oh, that couldn’t be good.

Carefully, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against his chest, whispering soothing words in my ear.  The effect wasn’t as instantaneous as it had been last time and that scared me even more.  If he couldn’t help me, what would happen?  It occurred to me then that no one had ever actually
told
me what would happen. Why?  Because they all
sucked.

“We need to get her calmed down quickly,” Grams told him, really sounding worried.  “The bind is unraveling on its own, flooding her with power much too quickly for her to acclimate herself to it.  There’s eight years of pressure waiting to be released in that tiny little body.  If she loses control, it could be disastrous.”