Strange Magic (16 page)

          Alex answered my frantic call to Caitlin’s cell phone.  I nearly fell over with relief when I found out that she was alive.  I decided that I had to see her right away with my own eyes and told Alex that I was coming over.  I called Duncan to go with me to Caitlin’s house.  He drove in silence until I had finished telling him about Anna’s threats.

          “Do you think she was just trying to scare you?”

          “No.  Caitlin was too upset to answer her phone.  Something definitely happened.”

          Caitlin met me at the door, and I pulled her into a fierce hug.  We both started crying and couldn’t even talk for awhile.  There was already a box of tissues in the living room.  Duncan and Alex sat awkwardly and waited for us to calm down.

          I began with an easy question.  “Where’s your mom?”

          “She’s on a date.  Alex and I were, too.”

          “What happened?” I asked.

          “First I have to tell you that Alex knows everything,” Caitlin said.  “After tonight, I couldn’t keep it from him anymore.  He deserved to know the truth.”

          “I understand.  You shouldn’t have to lie for me.”

          “Good, then he can tell you what happened.”  She gave me a tremulous smile.  “I think I’ll break down again if I start talking about it.”

          “It’s okay.  You just take it easy.”  I hoped that my smile was comforting.  Seeing Caitlin this upset made me dread hearing the story.  I turned to Alex and waited for him to begin.

          “Well, Caitlin and I were going for a drive when we saw Anna standing by the side of the road.  I figured her car had broken down, and I was going to stop, but Caitlin wouldn’t let me.  She got upset and said to just keep going, but she wouldn’t tell me why.  Then the car started going faster.  It—it just kept speeding up, and the brakes wouldn’t work.  I could barely control it around the curves in the road.”

          “Oh my God!”  I stared at him in horror.

           He seemed almost as shaken as Caitlin while he told the rest of the story.  “We got up to the overlook, and the car kept speeding toward the railing.  I thought we were going over.”

          Caitlin whimpered beside me, and I grabbed her hand.

          “Then it stopped at the last minute.”  His eyes were haunted by the terror he and Caitlin had felt.

          “I’m going to kill Anna!”  Duncan exploded out of his seat.

          “She really did that?”  Alex looked to me for confirmation.

          “It’s my fault.  I didn’t take her seriously.”

          “It’s not your fault.”  Caitlin was getting angry now.  “She pretended to be our friend, and then she tried to kill us.”

          “She wasn’t trying to kill you.  It was a warning for me.”  I told her what Anna had said over the phone.  “I’m so sorry that you guys got dragged into this.”

          “She can’t get away with it!”  Caitlin was really fired up now.

          “She has gotten away with it.  I can’t be there to protect you all the time, and she knows it.  I’m going to give her the crystal.”

          “Suzy, you can’t do that.  You see what she’s like.  Do you want her to get even more powerful?”  Caitlin turned to her boyfriend.  “Tell her, Alex.”

          “She’ll be like the Terminator.”

          “I have no choice.  She might actually kill you next time.”

          “I’m going to call Mom,” Duncan said.

          Mrs. Mkkenna came over right away.  She even brought her tea in an attempt to soothe our nerves.  It did make me feel better, but I think it was more that she, herself, had a calming presence.  Duncan had filled her in on the situation, and we all wanted her opinion.  By the expression on Alex’s face, I could tell that seeing an adult take this seriously had made him realize that this was all real.

          “There was nothing wrong with the car on the way down,” he said to no one in particular.  “The brakes worked just fine.”

          Mrs. Mkkenna gave him a sympathetic look.  “It’s a lot to take in all at once.”

          “What should we do Mom?”  Duncan hadn’t touched his tea.  He was anxious to take some kind of action.

          “Susannah is right that we need to take the crystal to Anna.  I should never have taken it in the first place.”

          “But she’ll win,” Caitlin protested.

          “It’s not a game,” Mrs. Mkkenna said.  “It’s not worth losing your lives.  I’ll give the crystal back to Anna.”

          “I think I should be the one to give it back to her,” I ventured.  “She can’t seem to hurt me no matter what she does.  We seem to be pretty well-matched in power.”

          “I think I should go with you,” Duncan said.

          “No.  I might not be able to protect both of us if she tries something.”

          “I don’t want you to go alone.”  He wouldn’t back down.

          Mrs. Mkkenna interrupted our argument.  “She doesn’t have to go alone.  There is another way for the two of us to be there with her.”

          “I don’t know,” Duncan said.  “I’d still rather be there in person.”

          I listened to this exchange in confusion.  Then it dawned on me what they were talking about.  “The crystal.”

          “If Anna can use it to her advantage, then so can you.”  Mrs. Mkkenna looked hopeful, and her voice was tinged with excitement.

          I wasn’t so sure about this plan.  “But I don’t know how to use it.”

          “I’ll guide you, but it’s simple really.  The crystal does all of the work for you,” she explained.

          Caitlin and Duncan switched seats so that he could sit beside me.  Mrs. Mkkenna told me to hold my hands in front of Duncan’s chest.  Even though we weren’t touching, it felt intimate enough to make me blush.  Looking into his eyes made me feel as shy as the first day I met him, so I looked down at my hands and saw the shimmer of his aura.

          “Cool!” Caitlin exclaimed.

          The crystal began to glow, and the light it gave off intensified until it was dazzlingly brilliant.  The surprised voices of the others faded, and everything else receded into the background.  I was enveloped in the energy coming from Duncan.  The well was not dry.  It ran deeper than even he knew.  I felt the strength and the power, and I saw what had been unseen.  When I came out of my trance, I saw that the crystal had stopped glowing, and Duncan’s aura was no longer visible.

          “What was that?  It didn’t do that when I saw Anna use it.”  Duncan looked bewildered.

          Mrs. Mkkenna nodded.  “Yes, it’s because you gave your power willingly to Susannah.  She didn’t trick you into it.  The more pure the intent, the more powerful the crystal becomes.”

          I was worried about Duncan.  “Are you okay?  I didn’t take too much, did I?”

          “I feel fine.  What about you?”

          “I feel great actually,” I marveled.  “Refreshed, like I got lots of sleep.”

          “I’m next.”  Mrs. Mkkenna shooed Duncan out of the way and sat down beside me.

          “Um.”  I wasn’t sure how to phrase my question.  “Um, you said that you have to be in love.”

          Mrs. Mkkenna laughed.  “It’s called the Crystal of Devotion.  The key word is devotion.  There are many kinds of love, Susannah.  I see what a good person you are and how much you care for my son.  I have grown quite fond of you in the time I’ve known you.”

          I had become fond of her, too.  She had been kind and sincere since the first moment I met her.  Unlike Duncan, Mrs. Mkkenna had never been suspicious of me or my intentions.  She was truly a person who judged everyone by their own individual actions.  I repeated the same process that I had used with Duncan.  The results were the same, and I now felt even stronger.

          “I want to help, too!”

          I was touched.  “That’s sweet, Caitlin, but you don’t have these abilities.  Besides, I don’t need anymore.”

          She turned to Mrs. Mkkenna.  “You told Suzy that everybody has these abilities, but most people can’t access them.  Maybe Suzy can access mine.”

          “It’s a fascinating possibility.  We won’t know unless she tries.”

          “C’mon, Suzy.  It’s worth a shot,” Caitlin said.  “Better to have too much power than not enough, especially when you’re dealing with Anna.”

          I didn’t expect it to work, but it did.  I felt myself connect with Caitlin’s untapped abilities.  They were raw and easily taken.  When the transfer was complete, I felt more awake and aware than I ever had before in my life.

          “You’re not gonna leave me out.”

          “I know you want to help, Alex, and I know there are all kinds of love, but you hardly know me.  There’s no way that you love me.”

          “But I love Caitlin, and you’re the only one who can protect her from Anna.”

          Caitlin stood up.  “You love me?”

          “Well duh,” Alex said flippantly, but his face was turning red.

          Caitlin threw her arms around him.  “I love you, too!”

          I couldn’t help but smile at this wonderful development.  Alex disentangled himself from Caitlin and sat down beside me.  “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”

          To my surprise, the crystal worked again.  Alex had even more untapped power than Caitlin.  When I was done, I felt like I could run a marathon without getting tired.  I looked at all of them.  “Thank you.”

          “Just be safe,” Duncan said.

          Instead of calling Anna on the phone, I reached out for her with my mind until I found her.  “I’m coming over to bring you the crystal.”

          She took a moment to answer.  “I knew you’d see it my way.”

          Duncan drove me to Anna’s house.  I gave him directions, even though I had never been there before.  I simply knew where to go.  Duncan still didn’t want to leave me alone with Anna.  He pulled into her driveway and drove slowly toward the house, which was set pretty far back from the road.  The house was bigger than anyone else’s home that I knew, but probably still not as large as her mansion in California.

          “I’ll call you to pick me up when I’m done,” I said.

          “I don’t like this.”

          “Duncan, please.  We already decided I would take care of it.  I’ll probably call you in five minutes.”

          “Then I’ll wait in the driveway.”

          “No!”  I was remembering what Anna had done to Alex’s car.  “I don’t need a babysitter.  It will make me look weak in front of Anna.  It’s already bad enough we’re giving her the crystal.  Promise me you won’t come back until I call you.”

          “Fifteen minutes, Susannah.  Then I’m coming back.”

          “Duncan!” I protested.

          “If it takes longer than fifteen minutes, then something’s wrong.  It’s not like you’re going to be hanging out,” he reasoned.

          I was anxious to see Anna and get this over with, so I agreed with him and got out of the car.  I waved at him and turned to walk up to the front door.  It swung open on its own, just like in all those haunted house movies.

          “Cute,” I muttered.

          Anna greeted me as I stepped inside.  “Susannah, so glad you could drop by.”

          Thinking about what she had done to Caitlin made me want to punch her.  “This is the deal.  I give you the crystal, and you leave and never come back to Valley View.”

          “I believe the deal was that you give me back my crystal, and I don’t kill your friends.”

          I clenched my hands at my sides and took a breath.  I wouldn’t let her upset me anymore than she already had.  She was enjoying holding that over me way too much.  “Whatever.  I don’t have all night to argue with you.”

          “And here I thought that we were going to have a sleepover and talk about boys all night.  I even sent my employees away so we wouldn’t be disturbed.”

          “Where’s your dad?” I asked.

          Anna laughed, and the amusement even reached her eyes.  “Daddy?  In Valley View?  You can hardly find this place on the map.  He did make sure that I have a guardian here, but she has a new boyfriend.  It wasn’t difficult to convince her to take the night off.”

          “How nice for you.  Look, I’ll just give you the crystal and leave you to your privacy.”  I grabbed hold of the chain in order to take it off and pulled my hand back with a yelp.  The chain was burning hot to the touch.  I looked at my hand, but it wasn’t even red.  It showed no signs of having been burned.

          Anna looked even more amused.  “Do you really think that you’re going to fool me with a childish trick like that?”

          “You try it then.  I don’t know what happened.”  I stepped closer to her so that she could reach the necklace.

          The same thing happened to Anna’s hand when she touched the crystal.  She cried out and snatched her hand back.  Her amusement had been replaced by anger.  “Stop that right now!  I’m not going to play games with you.”

          “I’m not doing anything, I swear.”  It made no sense.  The necklace was hot to the touch, yet it rested easily on my skin without burning it.

          Anna then tried to remove it by using the power of her mind.  It lifted slightly and then zapped her, making her fall down on her butt.  I had seen some kind of a spark shoot out of the crystal and hit Anna.  This succeeded in making her furious.  A huge chandelier came crashing down toward me, and I deflected it by flinging it at the wall.  I mentally opened the front door too, but it closed before I reached it.  I spent only seconds opening it and watching it close before I realized I wasn’t getting out that way.  I ran further into the house instead.

          Anna was throwing everything in her path at me as she followed me.  Figurines, chairs, tables, and even plates and silverware went whizzing past me or crashing into the floor near me.  Nothing even came close to hitting me.  An entire set of knives clattered to the floor.

          I stopped and turned to face Anna.  “You’re destroying your house.”

          She was in the process of targeting me with a gun.  Her arms jerked back as she pulled the trigger, and she fired into the ceiling.  The gun flew out of her hand and shattered the window as it went through it like a missile and landed on the ground outside far back from the house.  The clip detached from the gun, and the remaining bullets scattered in all directions.  I could see it all in my mind’s eye as it happened.

          “I was ready for you this time,” Anna raged, but she was tired.  Expending so much energy in attacking me had exhausted her.  She looked closely at me.  “What did you do?  You’re not even a little tired.”

          She was right.  All the power I had used in defending myself had barely made a dent in my energy level.  I heard Duncan pounding on the front door and turned to go to him.

          “You’re not going anywhere with my crystal.”

          I stopped and looked back at her.  “I can’t take it off.  You saw that for yourself.”

          “Susannah!” Duncan shouted.

          “You used my crystal,” Anna realized.  “You used it on Duncan.  That’s why you haven’t used up your reserves of power, you hypocrite.”

          “He gave it to me himself.  I didn’t steal it from him like you did.”

          “He let you take his power?”  The hurt look on Anna’s face seemed genuine.

          The piano was hurtling toward me through the air.  I mentally batted it away as if it weighed no more than a Frisbee.  It dropped to the ground with a loud crack as its legs broke.  I stared into the eyes of the one who wanted to destroy me and the ones that I loved.  The heavy piano rose into the air once again and floated slowly toward Anna.  She focused on it, but it didn’t alter its course.  Anna was temporarily out of power.  I could see it as fear replaced the hate in her eyes.

          She tried to run out of the room, but I pinned her to the wall with a couch.  The piano hovered over her head as it skimmed the high ceiling.  She screamed and raised her arms up to protect herself as the piano suddenly dropped like a stone and stopped a mere inch from her head.  Anna was trembling and trying to get control of her breathing as she stared at me with huge green eyes.

          The piano glided away from her and settled gently to the floor.  The couch slid back and set her free.  She watched me silently for a moment.  Then she smirked at me.  “That’s why you’ll never win, Susannah, because you’re weak.”

          “Susannah!”  Duncan had found us and was climbing through the broken window.

          Anna ignored him and walked up to me.  “Are you ready to give up the crystal now?  You know it won’t be long before I’m back at full power.  Since you don’t have the guts to finish this, you—“

          The crystal distracted her as it began to glow with a mesmerizing array of colors.  With her eyes locked on it in a dreamy gaze, she raised her hand to touch it.  I saw her aura then.  It was well-defined and thick with the energy she had stolen from others.  An exhilarating wave of power surged through me as quickly as a tornado.  Now Anna’s aura looked gauzy and indistinct.  I caught her before she hit the ground.

          Anna was in a coma for three days.  Her father flew in to be by her side and wanted to move her to a better facility, but he was advised against it.  The doctors hadn’t yet been able to determine the cause of her coma, as she had sustained no injuries.  Mr. Thorne brought in specialists who told him the same thing as the doctors on staff.  We found all of this out from Caitlin, whose mom was a nurse at the hospital.

          The Crystal of Devotion was now tucked away in my jewelry box.  No one else had suffered any ill effects from it, not even a cold.  Duncan was sure it was because they had willingly given me their power.  He had also regained his abilities much faster this time.  Duncan and I had tried to wake Anna without success that night.  I had put everything in the house back to order as well as I could.

          We needed to get Anna to the hospital, but we didn’t want to be seen.  We had placed her on the couch and left the front door wide open.  Then Duncan drove a few streets away and parked the car.  I had used my ability to make Anna’s phone keep dialing the police and hanging up.  I could sense when the police car pulled up to her house.  We both heard the sound of the ambulance approaching not too long after that.

          I was surprised when Anna asked to see me after she awoke.  She was, of course, in a private room.

          “How are you feeling?” I asked her.

          “Tired, which is weird after three days of sleep.”

          “You scared me.  I was worried that you wouldn’t come out of it.”

          Anna’s expression was unreadable.  “I do believe you’re telling the truth.”

          “I never wanted it to come to that.”

          She sighed.  “Do me a favor.  Try to say something to me with your thoughts.”

          We were silent for a couple of minutes, and Anna’s eyes glistened with tears.

          “It takes time for it to come back,” I said.

          “It’s all gone!  You drained all of it.”

          I had already sensed that, but I hadn’t wanted to tell her.  “I didn’t mean to.  I don’t know how it happened,” I said honestly.

          “That’s the worst part.  You don’t even know what to do with all of that power.”

          “Is it really so terrible?” I asked.  “You have so much more than most people—money, looks, brains.  Why isn’t that enough?”

          Anna ignored everything I had said.  “I’ll find a way to get it back.”

          I didn’t answer.  I knew that she wouldn’t get it back.  Her power was gone for good.  There was nothing I could do but leave her to her brooding.  She waited until I had reached the door.

          “Do you believe in destiny now?”

          I stopped and slowly turned around.  Anna met my gaze, and a look of understanding passed between us.

          “You see glimpses of it with everyone you take power from.  Their destinies.  That’s how I knew Duncan wasn’t going to end up with me.”

          I didn’t make her ask.  “You’re going to be just fine, Anna.  More than fine, in fact.”

          I had seen her destiny.  She was going back to her rarified world.  It was where she belonged, and she would thrive there.  I knew that I would never see her again.  “Goodbye, Anna.”

          “Goodbye, Susannah.  Tell Duncan goodbye for me.”

          I walked out of her room and took the elevator down to the lobby.  Anna had said that I didn’t know what to do with all my power, but she was wrong.  I planned to use it to help as many people as I could.

          “What did she say?”

          I looked into the pale blue eyes I had first glimpsed in a dream.  “We don’t have to worry about her anymore.”

          Duncan pulled me into his arms and embraced his destiny.