The Price of Power (The Price of Secrets Series Book 2) (13 page)

    The same sounds of a young girl’s laughter that I heard at the end of my dream, rang in my ears and faded away. I guess that was her way of agreeing. At least I hope so. I don’t need an audience while I’m in school or when I’m kissing Daniel or, heaven forbid, when I go to the bathroom. Talk about being self conscious. I sighed and got my journal and started writing down my dream in detail.

    
Dear Diary, here’s a new one for you…

Chapter 12

    “It’s been MacKenna in your head this whole time? I wish she could have told you who the other two are so we could find them all ready.” I had filled Daniel in on the way to pick up Jaycee. Since we couldn’t talk her parents into letting her spend the night with me last night, we settled on getting together this afternoon. I can’t blame them for wanting to spend her sixteenth birthday with her, but it has made me uneasy all day. What if she was around her family and her full powers hit her?

    Jaycee was standing on her front porch as we pulled into the driveway, and I noticed a new car parked in front of the garage.

    “Is THAT your birthday present?” I asked.

    “I wish. It’s Mom’s, but I got her old car!” She held up the keys as she danced in place. “Now I just have to pass that stupid driving test so I can drive it.”

    “You will. Happy Birthday!” I gave her a tight hug.

    “Thanks.”

    “Yeah, Happy Birthday. The roads will never be safe again.” Daniel joked.

    “Thanks Chief. I have you know I’m a good driver.” She stuck her tongue out at him.

    “Well, other than the fact that your aura has changed to a beautiful solid indigo, has anything happened?” I saw it as soon as I got out of the car. Over the last couple months her aura has changed little by little each day. Now, I
feel
that this is the complete morphosis. Big word, yay me.

    “Really? That color looks great on me. But nope, no magic dust, no pointed hats, no head spinning, nothing. Seriously though, I think I felt something after midnight. It could have been just the anticipation of waiting for
it
to happen, but I felt something run through me, it started in my chest and pushed out until it made its way from my head to my feet. Then it just stopped. I really want to practice today, can we go back to your house and get started?”

    “Sure. My dad is home and he was wanting to talk to you anyways.”

    “Great. let me grab my stuff and tell Mom and Dad bye.” She opened the door and out ran Sassy, Jaycee’s black lab mix, and straight into Daniel’s arms.

“That’s right, you haven’t met Sassy yet. Will you please talk to her and tell her to lay off my shoes?”

    Communicating with animals was the first power Daniel knew he had. It all started with his first dog, Kona. Kona began sending pictures to Daniel’s mind of things like a food bowl if he was hungry, or of the yard if he needed to go out, and it just progressed from there.

    “I’m going in with Jaycee to say hey to her parents. I will leave you two to, um, talk.” I gave him a wink.

    When Jaycee and I came back Daniel and Sassy were just sitting on the steps staring at each other. Daniel was rubbing her sweet spot between her ears and Sassy was lazily wagging her tail.

    “Well?” Jaycee asked.

    “How did you get Sassy?” Daniel asked without taking his eyes off the dog.

    “Three years ago this little puppy just showed up at our door. She took up with me so I got to name her.”

    “Leave it to you to change tradition. Typically cats are familiars to witches, however, any animal can be. Sassy was sent to be yours, to look after you. And she has been telling me some of your secrets. I did not know you liked the movie
Grease
so much.”

    “Sassy! Only the ending where Sandy gets some fashion sense. I loved that outfit.”

    “I know, Sassy showed me an image of you dressing up like her for Halloween one year.” Daniel was enjoying this way too much.

    “Sassy! That’s it. Brandon!” She yelled into the house at her little brother. “Come get Sassy.” She turned to the dog. “And as for you Miss Thing…” Sassy jumped up and ran to Jaycee, nudging her head into Jaycee’s hand to be petted. “I can’t be made at this face.” She bent down and loved on Sassy until Brandon came to the door.

    “We were taking a nap and she just bolted out of my room.” Brandon looked up and saw Daniel. “Oh hey. Tell David to get online later so we can play Call of Duty.” Daniel’s little brother, David, and Brandon are in the same class together.

    “It will be awhile before I go home, you might want to text him.”

    “Okay see ya. Bye birthday jerk.” He ran back inside with Sassy before Jaycee was able to hit him. I guess that was siblings way of saying ‘Happy Birthday’ to each other. Sometimes I’m glad I am the only child.

    Daniel started the car and turned around to face Jaycee in the back seat. “Sassy chews on your shoes because it makes her gums feel good, and because they smell like you. It keeps you close to her when you're gone. She adores you.”

    “Aww,” Jaycee put her hand to her heart, “but could you ask her to limit herself solely to my off brands? Ha, get it, SOLEly, soles of a shoe? I kill me. ”

    “Promises, promises.” That earned Daniel a flick to the back of the head, but I knew she thought it was funny.

    “Hey! There she is, my second most favorite sixteen year old in the world. Happy Birthday, kid.” My dad greeted us as we walked into the kitchen. He pulled a bag off the top of the refrigerator and handed it to Jaycee. “This is from me and Marie. She wanted to be here but she’s showing property today.

    “For me? You didn’t have to get me anything. Saying that just shows how much I love you guys, cause you know I’m all about the gifts.”

    “You are a true martyr. Open it, it’s not much. We just felt, since you think it would be safer not to let your parents know what’s going on, that we should try to give a little guidance and support.”

    Jaycee pulled out a book and read the title. “Earth Magic.”

    “I did some research,” my dad loves his research, “and this book is the real deal. We didn’t want to get you a book of spells or of witchcraft. So, since you are a natural born witch, we wanted to start you out with natural magic from the earth.”

    “Thank you, I love it.”

    “After you get settled, meet me in my study. If you don’t mind, I would like to see if I can help you get a handle on those powers of yours.”

    “Sounds good, let me put my bag in Hannah’s room and I’ll be right there. I’m anxious to get started.”

    After putting her bag away, and grabbing snacks and drinks, we met Dad in the study. This is my favorite room in the house. I love the wall to wall bookcases, with all the dark wood and leather furniture, it feels like a cozy little library. Daniel and I sat on the small loveseat and let Jaycee have the chair closest to where Dad was sitting on the edge of his desk.

  “Okay Jaycee, I want you to close your eyes and relax.” Dad put his psychology degree to work. “In my hand I have a candle. I want you to concentrate on lighting just this candle. Remember that I am holding it, so you need to have control of the flame.”

    “I can’t, I don’t want to hurt you.”

    “You won’t. You care about what happens to me so your subconscious will not let you, but you do need to have control over it. Close your eyes, and picture me holding a lit candle, with an appropriate size flame.”

    In mere seconds the candle lit with no casualties.

    “Wonderful! Now, keeping the candle lit, I want you to open your eyes.” Jaycee obeyed.  “You’re doing great. Focus on the candle and this time make the flame a little bit wider.” It worked, the flame widened out almost to the edges of the pillar candle. “Good, very good. Do not think about it, just listen to my voice. Put the flame back to where it was and make it about three inches taller. Three inches.”

    I could see Jaycee’s brow pinch together. Trying to be precise with her gift is not something she has tried before, but she looked determined. It worked, the flame got slimmer while the height grew to what looked to be about three inches.

    Suddenly Dad’s whole demeanor changed. In a hurried, raised voice, he said, “put the flame out now”.

    Jaycee jolted at Dad’s stern command, but did as she was told. The fire was completely out. “What’s wrong, what happened?” She looked at his hands, thinking she had burnt him.

    “Nothing is wrong. I wanted you to do it quickly to see if you could still control it under duress. Jaycee you did amazingly well. I’m sorry I had to speak to you like that. It was the only thing I could think of to put a little pressure on you.”

    “No, don’t apologize, it worked. I feel like a total badass. Oops, I mean bad A.”

    “I’ve seen Hannah’s cuss jar, you meant bad ass.”

    Daniel and I couldn’t help but laugh, it wasn’t often that Jaycee blushes or is at a loss for words like she was now.

    Dad cleared his throat to mask his laugh, then continued. “Do you feel up to trying one more thing?”

    “Sure, like I said, I’m ready to master this.”

   Jaycee has always been the one person I have made off limits to reaching into her mind, but it seems like the stronger our powers become, the harder it is to do that. Like right now for instance, her thoughts entered mine and I wasn’t even wondering what she was thinking. Although, I’m kinda glad because I saw what was on her mind. Yes, she wants to help win this battle, but she thinks if she can control it she will be able to tell Mike that she is a witch. I worry that she might not like the results and it will break her heart. In turn, that could cause her mind not to be one hundred percent focused if one of the demons decide to make an appearance.

    Guilt hit me at my last thought. Was I being selfish putting her feelings aside for the sake of the battle?

     
Not at all. You are thinking of her safety and that of the others. You are thinking like a true leader.

    Knowing where the voice was coming from now didn’t make it less freaky when MacKenna talked in my head. I hate to admit it, but hearing that did make me feel less like a crappy best friend.

    “We are going to try a different element.” He turned around a grabbed a water bottle from his desk. “Same as before, close your eyes and listen to only my voice. I want you to picture this water bottle that I am moving from side to side. See the water moving, sloshing up the sides, leaving tiny bubbles at the surface.”

    He paused to let Jaycee get a clear image in her head.

    “You see the bottle stop moving and the water slowly becoming still. The bottle is now in a freezer, sitting on the shelf next to ice cube and frozen dinners. The water’s temperature is dropping, dropping. Now there is a thin film of ice just floating on the top.”

    Dad paused again, this time he checked the bottle of water he was holding. He looked at me and winked, it was working. “As the temperature continues to drop, the more ice takes place of the liquid. Jaycee, I need the entire bottle to turn to ice.”

    At first I didn’t think she was going to be able to do it. I figured that the top thin layer of ice she made was impressive enough, but then I saw Dad drop the bottle and look down at his hands. My instincts had me at Dad’s side to make sure he was okay. He only smiled and laid his hands on the side of my cheeks, it felt as if he had had snow in them. I bent down and picked up the water bottle, it was completely frozen!

    “Jaycee, look, you did it!” Jaycee was shaken up from the loss of energy mixed with the surprise of the extent of her powers. It worried me how weak she had became after only a thirty minute practice session. I handed her the bottle and patted her back. She would hate it if I fussed over her, so I went with what she’s comfortable with- sarcasm.  “I guess Megan was right, you really are an ice queen. How about a break?”

    “A break sounds good. I need to call the hospital and check on a patient I signed in last night. Jaycee when you’re ready let me know and we will start on another element. Born witches have some sort of control over all the elements but usually have a primary control over one. I’m curious to see which one is yours.”     

    “It’s fire. I feel it reaching out to me when I call on it.” She looked over at Daniel and me. “That’s why I have been having that same dream. Fire is what killed my kind, and now this is it’s way of retribution, so to speak.

    “I didn’t know how tell you, but last night I had the same dream. It started, as always, with flames and the sounds of screaming, but this time I was able to stay in it to see more. I saw witches, from a long time ago, burning. I could even smell it and I can’t describe to you how horrible that was. It was not like Salem witches being burned at the stake. It was good natural born witches that had been hunted, tortured, and finally burning to death by demons. Most of them never even knew they were a witch. Something in my dream told me why, but I never saw where the voice was coming from. This is gonna sound crazy, but I don’t think a person was telling me, I think it was coming from the fire.” She looked at my dad as if she was expecting him to fit her for a straight jacket right then and there.

    Dad saw her hesitation. “Jaycee, honey, you should know by now that in this household there is not much that surprises us. What did the fire tell you?”

    My heart swelled with pride that he was my dad. I thought of Megan and how no one in her family believes her. I made a mental note that I must be the one to stand up for her and help her get Mikah out of her life.