Spellbound (7 page)

“We could talk about your ‘abilities’ for one.”

I stared straight at her, willing myself to give nothing away.

Could she know I was a witch? Had she seen me do anything in the hallways? I didn’t think so but my first and best defense would always be to deny everything.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Natalie laughed. The laugh held no humor at all. It held…
knowledge.
In that brief instant, I knew that she knew. I faced her, determined not to show fear or even surprise that she knew my secret. She appraised me coolly.

“So young twitch, you are brave as well as studied. Let’s test how close you paid attention to your lessons.” Her head swiveled in the direction of a large pile of books stacked at the end of the table waiting to be returned to the shelves. Her eyes flashed and in an instant the top three books lifted and launched towards me. Just as quick, I waved my hand at them and they dropped to the floor, a split second before they would have crashed into me.

“Well done, little twitch.” Natalie clapped her hands together. The table where I stood lifted from the floor on my side and the remaining stack of books began to slide toward me. I nodded at them once and just as fast they began to fly all throughout the room, replacing themselves on the correct shelves. I circled and glowered at Natalie.

“Can we dispense with the games now? I can assure you, we are well matched. I asked you earlier...what do you want, Natalie?”

Natalie stared at me for a few minutes before answering.

Then, with deliberate intent, she glared down and one of the chairs tucked into the table pulled out on its own and she sat down in it.

“Sit down, Serena. No more show. We’ll talk.” The chair I was closest to suddenly scooted out near me. I looked at Natalie, who shrugged her shoulders. I sat down in the chair.

“Serena, clearly we have more in common than you realized.

And there is more even than our, shall we call it, unique abilities.

The Council has called upon me to remind you of your responsibilities. And this
relationship
,” she said the word as if it were distasteful to her, “with the boy has them worried.” She paused, likely for my reaction. I kept my face impassive and my thoughts as clear as possible in case she went fishing around in my head. “Convey that the message was delivered. And now here is one of my own. Any relationship I may or may not have is my business, not theirs. And now you and the Council can leave me alone.” With that, I got up and strode out of the library, hoping I appeared powerful and confident.

****

Natalie didn’t follow me and I didn’t detect her monitoring my thoughts. I walked to the parking lot. I had every intention of finding my sister and going home as soon as possible. I expected I had just done some major damage and I anticipated she might have sensed I needed her and intercepted me. That did not happen. As I crossed the quad I caught sight of the baseball diamond in back of the school and realized I didn’t want to go home. I wanted to find Logan. I had no idea where he might be, but suddenly being out at the baseball field seemed like a good idea. Even if he wasn’t there now, I knew he would be there sometime soon. So I would wait.

I went around the long way to the back of the school and found the bleachers empty. I climbed the steps to the top and sat down. From there I could view the boy’s locker room. I sighed because I’d found a perfect place to sit. I would catch him as soon as he came out. I concentrated on that scene so hard that when Logan came up alongside me, I almost fell off the seat.

“Hey!” I said, “Now, who is sneaking up on whom?” I could hardly keep the relief out of my voice.

“What’re you doing here? What happened to the library?”

Logan took a seat next to me. Just the mention of the library brought it all back to me and I slumped heavily next to him and made a whimpering sound.

“What’s that about?” The tenderness in his voice, so sweet and genuine, was so sincere, and I had to fight back tears.

“Oh, Logan. Something awful.”

“What happened? Did someone hurt you? Are you okay?”

Next to him, pressed close to his body, I could feel him tense, readying to protect me. As if he could, against this unseen opponent.

“No, no. I’m fine. It’s just that I ran into Natalie.”

“Natalie? What do you mean you ‘ran into her’?” He narrowed his eyes. “Did she
hurt
you?”

“Logan, I’m going to tell you something you may not believe, but you have to trust me.” I moved closer, took his hands in mine and searched his eyes. I jumped into his head for just an instant. I accepted as truth that he believed me and wanted to protect me. And that for some reason he felt responsible for introducing me to Natalie. I jumped back out and continued talking. “Natalie is like me. She proved it in the library just now. But she is not a friend of mine, Logan. She has an agenda. And oh yes, she also delivered a message from the Council.”

“You mean the one your sister told us about last weekend?

That Council? She’s with the Council?” He darted around with wild eyes.

“Yes. I need to talk to Elizabeth. I may have just made matters worse.”

”Why? What happened?”

I started to tell Logan. As I relayed the encounter I watched his face change from concern to anger. He could barely contain his rage. “You said she had a message?”

I suddenly had a fear of telling Logan everything. As much as he wanted to protect me, I wanted to keep him as far away from the craziness of my world as I could. Such goodness and kindness dwelled deep within him; part of me kept thinking it wasn’t fair to expose him to the insanity. Now he had shown himself to be brave as well, ready to take on an opponent he could not even name. But, could it be too late already? Had my feelings for him involved him so much that there was no turning back? Would I even be ready to give those feelings a name? At what point would I surrender to the love that grew daily inside me for this beautiful and innocent, brave boy? Logan gently nudged me from my musings.

“Serena? What message?” He looked at me, insistent.

“What? Oh, I don’t remember. She was just so scary and nasty and it surprised me she knew about me. She tried to crush me with dictionaries!” I gave a half-‐-hearted little laugh, hoping to distract Logan from his question. To my relief, it worked. He relaxed too and reached for me with both arms. Soon I was crushed, but by the warm strength of his protective embrace. I melted into his chest and fitted my head into the area between his chin and shoulder. Maybe he couldn’t protect me as well as I could protect myself, but I never felt as safe as I did right at that moment, cutting class, sitting on the baseball bleachers, with my head resting on the chest of my perfect, normal boyfriend.

“It’s only the beginning, you know Logan. She acted as a messenger. I don’t know why they want me, but they do.”

He gripped me tighter.

“I told you before. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. We’re going to face this together.” He sounded so sure in his resolve.

“They’re going to have to go through me to get to you. And they’re not going to get through me.”

I relaxed in spite of everything. Such a typical guy. They all thought they were immortal. Problem though, there happened to be a breed out there that actually
was
immortal and someone like Logan going against them would never be a fair fight.

Chapter Eight

LOGAN

Serena checked with her sister and she said it would be alright for me to drive her home. I skipped baseball practice and waited for her after class in the parking lot. I got to my car first and talked to some of the other kids while I waited for her. I guess Serena and I were becoming something of an item. We were the hot topic. Couldn’t they talk about anything else? Gossip ran rampant in a small school.

“Hey Logan!” Sully came bounding over. “So, where’ve you been, Buddy? Haven’t seen you for a while.”

“Hey Sully, ‘sup?” It made me genuinely happy to see Sully.

He’d been a good friend from the team, and was one of those people who just seemed to be happy all the time. Today he seemed even happier than usual. “Something going on Sul?”

“Yeah. I bit the bullet and asked Brainless to the dance Friday.” I raised my eyebrows at him in surprise. I didn’t even know he liked Patty. He answered my questioning face. “Figured I better keep the matched set together.” He and I laughed together.

He referred to the fact that Dave and Tamera were undoubtedly going to the dance together and now if he took Patty, she and Tamera wouldn’t have to separate for those few hours. We all joked they shared the same brain and if one of them had it too long, the other would die.

“Good deal.” I nodded my approval when we stopped laughing from the inside joke.

“Hey,” he asked, “You takin’ Serena?”

“Yup. Asked her last week and she said yes. Waiting to drive her home now,” I said with pride. And at just that moment, she came around the corner, walking with Tamera and Patty.

Tamera and she were engaged in a conversation and Patty walked a little to the rear, straining to hear and be a part of it. So struck by the sight of Serena, I just stared. I think Sully might have been saying something, but at the sight of her, he fell silent as well. She had on another of those sundresses she favored, this one in light peach-‐-colored cotton, taking advantage of an unseasonably warm day we were having. The fabric clung to her creamy skin and swished around her long legs as she walked. Her blonde hair bounced as she walked and the slight breeze created by her steps carried it over her shoulders and cascaded it down her back.

Behind her I caught Patty watching Serena’s hair and could almost feel her coveting it, wishing her own lifeless brown helmet of hair could ever move like that.

The girls came walking up to us and Patty slipped a proprietary arm around Sully’s waist. He rolled his eyes at me where no one else could tell but did not remove her arm. So like Sully not to hurt Patty when she’d made it obvious she needed to feel wanted. I moved close to Serena but didn’t force anything. I wasn’t sure, but I thought we had reached some new level in our relationship on the bleachers. She’d revealed more and more to me and that meant she trusted me. I knew that had to be hard for her.

Many parts of her I didn’t yet know, but small pieces of the puzzle that was Serena were dropping into place. I knew she was a witch, or a twitch. So she had powers. How many and what kind, I didn’t know yet. She wasn’t too keen on showing me, either. I wasn’t going to push her. I didn’t want to scare her away. So I would go slowly, as slow as she wanted. The word ‘slow’ still rattled around in my brain when I felt her soft little hand slip into mine.

“Are you ready to take me home now, Logan?” Her voice was small and tired and she moved slowly. Today’s encounter with Natalie had had taken a lot out of her.

“Sure am. Let’s go.” I took her books and opened the door of my car for her. I helped her in and then walked around to my side.

“Very nice, Logan.” said Sully.

“Yeah.” said Dave, who had just joined the crowd.

“Impressive. I’ll have to remember that when I write my book.” He pretend-‐-wrote in the air. “How to Be a Gentleman by Davis Nathanson.”

“Shut up, Dave. When’s the last time you opened
my
door?”

Tamera petulantly asked Dave and stalked away.

“Thanks a lot, man” Dave muttered to me under his breath.

“Hey, can I help it if you’re an inconsiderate tool?” I chuckled and opened the door to my car. Serena smiled weakly; I could tell she’d been wiped out. I was mad at myself for jerking around when I should have been driving her home. Who’s the tool now? I threw the car into drive and jammed out of the parking lot at top speed.

“Logan, watch out. You’re going too fast.” Serena admonished me. I started to depress the brake but realized the car had slowed down. I glanced at Serena.

“Sorry. I know you are trying to get me home, but let’s get there in one piece, okay?” She winked.

“You did that?”

She just stared straight ahead, smiling like she had a secret.

“Should I bother steering?

“If you like.”

“You mean I could just let go and you could drive the car home from the passenger seat?”

“You’re not going to let go, are you?”

“No. But could I?”

“Promise you won’t, and I’ll answer you.

“Okay, I promise I won’t.”

Okay, then. Yes.”

“Will you ever tell me everything you can do?” Did I want to know everything she could do?

“Honest, Logan. It’s not like I have a checklist. Plus, there are things I am still working on, mastering.” I must have acted crestfallen, because she added, “But I do promise to answer your questions. Just,” and here she hesitated, “can we do it another time?

I’m so tired right now.”

I felt like a heel again. She was tired. I already knew that.

“Absolutely. I’m sorry Serena. I just find this all so, so fascinating. I’ll take you home now, baby.” The endearment slipped out and I shot a quick glance to check how it got received. But my baby had fallen asleep in the passenger seat, her head tilted to the side facing me, eyes closed, breathing even and measured.

We reached our street and I swung into her driveway. I didn’t kill the engine, not wanting to interrupt her dreams. In her sleep, she resembled an angel. Her hair fanned out on the headrest and her soft, kissable lips were parted and moving, as though she were talking in her slumber. I leaned forward to listen, but couldn’t make anything out, it being largely unintelligible. I gazed at her one more time, cementing the picture in my mind to recapture later and later and later, and clicked off the engine. She awakened slowly, looking bewildered and beautiful. Languid, she stretched and gave a little kitten yawn.

“Oh. We’re here. Thank you Logan. I can’t believe I actually slept.” She stretched again. “I had the most delicious dream.” She kept the details to herself, unwilling it seemed, to share them. She gave me a quick kiss on my cheek and rested her hand on the side of my face. The gesture struck me as both tender and loving.